Antonio “Tony” Kinoc, a B’laan Datu who served as alternate
member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace panel representing
Indigenous Peoples, passed away shortly after midnight on Sunday, his daughter
announced through Kinoc’s Facebook wall.
“I lost my daddy last nite at 12:36,” AnneQueen Kinoc wrote
a little past 5 a.m. Sunday.
While designated as “alternate member,” the 66-year old
Kinoc was a constant presence in the MILF peace panel’s negotiations under the
Aquino administration, in Kuala Lumpur and in
the Philippines
The BTC extended its “deepest sympathies and condolences” to
Kinoc’s family. The MILF peace panel has yet to issue a statement on Kinoc’s
demise.
“Datu Kinoc or Sir Tony as we fondly called him was a B’laan
tribal leader, a member of the MILF Peace Panel and a consultant to the BTC. He
was a champion of peace and a friend to the Bangsamoro people,” the BTC said.
Patricia Sarenas, chair of the Mindanao Coalition of
Development NGOs (Mincode) and the Coalition of Development NGOs (Code-NGO),
said they are “saddened by your passing.”
“Thank you for your valuable contribution to the peace
talks!,” Sarenas said.
Kinoc was familiar with the Bangsamoro struggle as he worked
as a staffmember of a brother who was a member of the Regional Consultative
Commission (RCC), the body that drafted the proposed law that would govern what
would be the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in the late 1980s. He also
served as a member of the Consultative Assembly of the Special Zone of Peace
and Development (SZOPAD), set up after the signing of the 1996 Final Peace
Agreement between the government and the Moro National Liberaiton Front (MNLF).
Mary Ann Arnado of the Mindanao Peoples Caucus said Kinoc
“will be a big loss to the peace process and especially for the Indigenous
Peoples whom he had valiantly fought for, not only in words but with
persistent, consistent and dedicated acts of service.”
Arnado recalled that just before Kinoc fell ill, “Datu Tony
proudly told me he was able to have perfect attendance in the public and
committee hearings on the BBL.”
She noted how Kinoc, during public consultations would often
say: “I am a living witness of the fact that the MILF will not compel people to
become Muslims. I have worked with them all these years in the negotiation and
they have always respected and recognized my own identity and faith.”
Arnado said words are “not enough to honor and pay gratitude
to this person.”
“We can only repay you Datu by working doubly hard to ensure
that what you fought and worked for will become a reality for every Bangsamoro
and indigenous people in Mindanao . Salamat
Datu, we will miss you dearly,” she said.
Kinoc was articulate in narrating the Moro and IP struggles
for self-determination.
His sense of humor helped ease tension in the peace
negotiations. He never seemed to have run out of jokes.
Quel Valencia, who used to work with the Office of the
Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process and a member of the secretariat of
the government panel during negotiations in Kuala Lumpur wrote on Kinoc’s
Facebook wall that Kinoc was “One of — if not the most — cheerful figures in
the peace process.”
Cess Nagtalon Kinoc posted on her father’s Facebook wall how
he was “always ready with his jokes.”
“He was classy, well-versed, and he listened very well to
what everyone had said before he made his speeches,” she said.
She also shared with her father’s Facebook friends that her
father “taught us to speak English, he never tried to hurt us, he was always
ready with his jokes which were always so witty. He wasn’t strict, but he
always made sure we knew what was right. He turned us to movies and music and
books because he said there was a lot to learn from these. He loved the
classics so much he could quote every John Wayne film in John Wayne’s voice. I
loved listening to his stories: he told the history of the world as bedtime
stories, but never tarnishing the manner of how it was written. He told them as
it is. He loved his people and fought for them each time. He was proud of us as
his kids even though we failed so many times, he took them as his mistakes.”
“I could ask him almost about everything. He’s the reason
why I never get lost anywhere in the Philippines
http://www.mindanews.com/peace-process/2015/05/03/blaan-datu-antonio-kinoc-milf-peace-panel-member-passes-away/
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