Twenty-eight years ago, Rahib Kudto saw soldiers torture his two older brothers. 'They came down by helicopter to Kibenis village in Carmen town, North Cotabato,' he recalled.
'Two kinds of soldiers would come to our remote mountain village - those who brought sardines and milk and those who were cruel. I was five then when I saw them maul my brothers, accusing them of being rebels because of their long hair.'
Despite this harrowing experience, compounded by years of living as a refugee, he managed to get over his anger when he realised that neither soldiers nor Christians were the Muslims' real enemies.
'It just so happened the soldiers were Christians being used by the government against us,' he said.
Now 33, Mr Kudto is an ustadz, or Muslim religious scholar, like his father and a passionate advocate of peace who was moved to organise the United Youth for Peace and Development (UNYPAD) in 2004 when peace talks between the government and the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) hit trouble over the issue of ancestral domain.
His coalition is one of dozens of Muslim non-governmental organisations that spoke out when talks collapsed after the Supreme Court stopped the government from signing a preliminary deal on August 5. The Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on ancestral domain would have granted Mindanao's Moro minority extraordinary powers over a wide swathe of territory rich in metal and oil deposits.
The court order provoked three rebel MILF commanders into a violent backlash, which the government seized on as a reason to back out of the deal and launch a military offensive. The ensuing conflict has killed more than 300 civilians, rebels and soldiers, and displaced half a million, mostly Muslim, residents.