“We should keep dreaming as long as we’re alive, as long as our limbs permit us to stand”
– Esmail Pasague Unos, a 63-year-old Moro Islamic Liberation Front decommissioned Combatant from 118th Base Command – Camp Badre.
Somewhere in the conflict-stricken community of Kitango in Maguindanao is a narrow path lined with shanties that will lead you to a house sitting on top of a shallow pond. This house belongs to Esmail Pasague Unos, a former Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) fighter who continues to dream at the age of 63.
He does so because when he was a young boy during the early days of Martial Law in the 1970s, his father abruptly pulled him and his siblings out of class to escape. He said during that time, his fellow Moros, especially the men and even young boys, were being killed based on accusations that they were rebels. As a family of five men, two of whom are mute, and three women, they had no choice but to flee.
When they fled, Esmail thought their life would get better. But the bullets found the body of his Father. Then, they tore some more on their family when he and his siblings had to be separated: three stayed with his mother, and the other three were left in the care of their relatives. He assumed the role of his father and by the age of 15, he started carrying guns as he officially become an MILF combatant.
“What I really wanted was to finish studying so I can become a civil engineer,” he confessed in Filipino. “But times were hard and if we didn’t fight we would die.”
Now, Esmail is still not a civil engineer. He accepted that he would no longer become one. But he has a new dream that came along when he received a copy of his birth certificate: to become a truck driver. He said he plans to use his birth certificate to enroll himself in a TESDA driving course and then apply for a driver’s license.
In the meantime, Esmail drives a payung-payong within their small community to sustain their daily needs. He doesn’t earn that much, only P150 per day. It isn’t even enough to buy food for the day. So what they do is cook rice, eat it on its own, drink lots of water, then call it a meal.
But he persists and trudges on. Esmail saves what little is left of the Php 150.00 so he can start processing his TESDA application.
“Our dreams don’t cost us anything. If in the morning, your dream is gone, just make a new one. You can always make your own dreams,” he said. “We should keep dreaming as long as we’re alive, as long as our limbs permit us to stand.”
The ‘Access to Legal Identity and Social Services for Decommissioned Combatants’ (ALIAS DC) is a civil registration project funded by the European Union in the Philippines, Australia in The Philippines, and The Asia Foundation, and is implemented by IDEALS in partnership with the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, Reconciliation and Unity (OPAPRU), Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Joint Task Forces on Camp Transformation (JTFCT), at Task Force for Decommissioned Combatants and their Communities (TFDCC).
The project supports the Bangsamoro peace process by providing decommissioned combatants and their families with birth certificates and facilitating access to socioeconomic and development programs.
