"Mansueto's thinking is a positive energy released to empower scholars from the Philippine South who fight for liberation from an oligarchic intellectual conspiracy. I encourage my colleagues and students to read the works of SES local scholars such as Mansueto to be part of a movement that transforms stories of discrimination and injustice into safe spaces for productive philosophical discourses in Mindanao and beyond."
- Godiva C. Eviota-Rivera, Ph. D. --- Professor of Philosophy, Peace, and Language Studies, Mindanao State University-Main Campus
"In both practical and intellectual terms, the Western academia has assumed the predominant role in understanding human problems including, war, conflict, violence, poverty, sustainability, etc. Though many would think that colonialism is a past phenomenon, the remnants of colonialism and Eurocentrism affect us. It is critical to build intellectual framework based on each local contextual and critical dynamics. To that end, this book is a wonderful exemplar for decolonial intellectual endeavor. With his informative and insightful analysis and his sincere spiritual mind-set, Menelito P. Mansueto shows us how we can critique Western-centric socio-political, economic, and intellectual frameworks as well as how local academia and local people can be empowered."
- Dr. Juichiro Tanabe, Assistant Professor, International Relations Program, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan
"Mansueto’s work is not just philosophical. It is also about the mind of a revolutionary who loves his country. It should be seen as a way of looking at things beyond the usual bias and perspective of a dominant paradigm. He views reality differently and writes not on the dictates of a central doctrine. He explores the peripheries and gives a voice to those who have been silenced even by those who say that they are the purveyors of truth when in reality, they represent another scheme of a malignant type of hegemony that tries to undermine the views of people whose positions they do not agree with. The truth does not stay in one place, says Foucault. This book is part of a continuing struggle against a dominant discourse or metanarrative that seeks to kill the truth."
- Christopher Ryan Maboloc, PhD, Associate Professor, Ateneo de Davao University and Author, The Question of Justice in Contemporary Liberal Theory
"Menelito Mansueto’s book tries to prove that there is hope and it can be found in such groups as those in the Mindanao Bioregion of the Philippines and globally with the People of La Via Campesina, who are advancing, or regenerating the Indigenous Model. Such a model, which we call ‘Bioregionalist’ today involves a few major principles and practices. These involve a security structure of democratic confederation, guaranteed abundance and shared prosperity, ecological sustainability, the minimization of coercion in society. It is in this direction or an engaged or responsive biorealism that I think real hope lies or what I call an advanced technical bioregional orientation. Such an orientation can and will help to focus on where to direct discovery, invention, and innovation both technically and socially, where I hope that a better emergence can occur. Bioregionalism is the direction for hope, in order to heal the centuries of wounds from European conquest where calls for reparations are nearly absolute and war and retribution always a temptation."
- Dr. Layne Hartsell, Research Professor, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand