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Close to 3,000 students, representatives from civil society organizations, academe, church, business sector and grassroots communities attended the Paminaw Mindanaw (Listen Mindanao) Presidential Forum at the Holy Cross of Davao College Gym last April 16, 2010.

Its “an attempt to find out who among the candidates has a real, viable plan for Mindanao,” said Gus Miclat of the Initiatives for International Dialogue, one of the convenors and co-secretariat of the Mindanao Peaceweavers.

Only four presidential candidates made it to the forum: Former Sec. Gilberto Teodoro, Jr of Lakas-Kampi-CMD, Bro. Eddie Villanueva of Bangon Pilipinaas, Councilor JC delos Reyes of Ang Kapatiran and Nicanor Perlas of Partido ng Marangal na Sambayanan. Liberal Party standard bearer Sen. Benigno Aquino III and Sen. Richard Gordon of Bagumbayan sent their regrets while the organizers did not hear from the other presidential aspirants. (Read Sen. Benigno Aquino III’s and Sen. Richard Gordon’s letters.)

Representatives from the Lumads (indigenous peoples), Muslims, business, academe and youth sector took turns in asking the presidential candidates present about their specific agenda.

A live video broadcast (click on the recording on the upper right side of this page) was done while the Davao Bloggers did live updates through blogs, Facebook, Twitter and Plurk. Almost 2,000 viewed the live video stream online.

The forum was organized by The Bishops- Ulama Conference (BUC); Initiatives for International Dialogue; Kusog Mindanaw; Mindanao Association of State Colleges and Universities Foundation (MASCUF); Mindanao Commission on Women (MCW); Mindanao Business Council (MinBC); Mindanao Peaceweavers (MPW); National Ulama Conference of the Philippines (NUCP) and the Philippine Council for Islam and Democracy (PCID), Holy Cross of Davao College and Mindanao News and Information Cooperative Center.  Event partners include the Davao Bloggers, DabaweGNU and 13th Witch Design Studio.