YASMIN BUSRAN - LAO

Pagbigyan naman natin ang mga kandidatong walang pambayad ng ads o di kaya’y hindi masyadong kilala bagama’t karapat dapat manungkulan kung ibabase sa kanilang track record.
Unahin natin si Yasmin Busran – Lao, isa sa kandidato ni Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino at ni Sen. Mar Roxas ng partido Liberal sa pagka senador.
Ito ho ang liham ni dating Sec. Teresita “Ging” Quintos Deles (kasama ng Hyatt 10 na nagbitiw sa gabinete ni Madam Senyora Donya Gloria dahil hindi nila masikmura ang Hello Garci at kasama ng inyong lingkod sa pakikipaglaban sa mga katiwalian ng kasalukuyang administrasyon) tungkol kay Yasmin.
“I have known Yasmin Busran-Lao for more than a decade. We first met as civil society advocates in the Philippine peace movement. I headed a peace institute and several national-level peace networks with secretariats based in Manila, while she was and continues to be based in Marawi City in Mindanao, heading a Muslim women’s NGO and, I think, initially also serving on the faculty of the Mindanao State University. Almost at the same time that she became engaged in the peace movement, she also joined the national women’s organization PILIPINA, to which I belong and was a co-founder, and she came to head the organization’s chapter in Marawi. In 2000-2005, I joined government as a member of the Cabinet, initially heading the National Anti-Poverty Commission until September, 2003, and then as the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process until my resignation from government in 2005. Throughout this period, Yas and I retained a close working and personal relationship, closely cooperating in advancing the peace and feminist agenda from our respective sides of the governance fence.
I consider Yas a truly outstanding champion for peace and women’s rights, particularly from the perspective of the Bangsamoro. Her work has been extraordinary in that it has combined both grassroots organizing and development work, on the one hand, with a high level of scholarship and public advocacy—both streams of her efforts contributing to both improving the conditions of communities, especially women and children, caught in the middle of armed conflict, and strengthening public awareness of the challenges confronting the search for peace in Mindanao as well as the rights of Filipino women under Islam.
I admire Yasmin for her clarity of vision and her courage in speaking out on issues, not only when they involve external sources of injustice and oppression but even when they reflect internal contradictions and challenge traditional powers and hierarchies within the Bangsamoro. She has demonstrated rigor and passion in advancing the causes of peace and feminism in national discourse, even as she has remained rooted in her community and island of origin. With the Al Mujadillah Development Foundation and the Nisa Ul-Haqq Fi Bangsamoro, which she founded with other Moro women, Yasmin has worked tirelessly and relentlessly, even through periods of personal trial and affliction, to bring about women’s empowerment, improved local and regional governance, civil society consensus-building and conflict mediation, and humanitarian assistance for families displaced by war in Central Mindanao.
She has been steadfast in her commitment to the cause of women, peace for her people, and the national welfare. I think the Philippines is badly in need of having someone like Yasmin Busran-Lao in the Senate.”