Manila: The daughter of famous action star Robin Padilla called for an end to the war in the southern Philippines after a short stint of giving food packs to civilians who were displaced there by clashes that began in August.
"There has to be an end to this war. I can't help but ask why there is war in Mindanao while people in the malls in Manila seem oblivious to the suffering of many people," said Queenie Sicangco Padilla, 17, in a moving article she wrote for the Inquirer.
"Why, despite the war, is there such glitter at Rockwell, Eastwood, and many other places for the rich, who spend large amounts of money for expensive food, clothes, cars, cell phones and many more luxurious things?," she asked, in a piece that she wrote after she went to Pikit in North Cotabato, Datu Piang and Talayan in Maguindanao in mid-September.
She came back to the Philippines in 2007 after completing her high school in Australia where she, her three siblings Kylie, Zhen-Zhen, and Allih, and her mother Lizelle reside.
"Having spent my childhood in Australia, I had yet to be exposed to communities less privileged in terms of livelihood and social benefits for their residents," explained Padilla who has acted with her father in a TV series in Manila this year. She was one of 50 people who distributed 500 food packs to the evacuees at the school grounds of Bulagawan in Pikit.
Renewal of clashes in the south have killed hundreds and displaced half a million people after three renegade leaders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front attacked 20 civilian villages in August.
