It is a non-stock, non-profit foundation primarily engaged in peace-building, promoting sustainable integrated area development, developing the mechanisms and technology for democratic participation of peoples and communities in local governance and facilitating agrarian reform implementation. It was registered with the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on May 8, 1996.

BMFI’s mission statement reads: Helping Build Empowered Sustainable Communities. Helping Build Peace in Mindanaw as it pursues its vision of Kaangayan, Kalambuan, Kalinaw sa Mindanaw, sa Pilipinas, sa Kalibutan (Equality, Development, Peace for Mindanao, for the Philippines and for the World). Its peace-building and development work in the rural areas of Mindanao are pursued through principled partnerships with the people’s organizations, non-governmental organizations, local government units, government agencies and other sectors towards the building of a Mindanao which is truly a home (“balay” and “banay”) for its tripeople - the Moros, the Lumads (Indigenous Peoples) and the settlers.

For the past nine years, BMFI’s involvement in Mindanao peace-building and development work has been at the following levels of intervention:

       At the barangay level, engage in actual community organizing activities following the COCO-BREAD framework which has been adopted by the Philippine Community Organizers Society (PHILCOS) and facilitate the forging of community-based and area-focused partnership among the development players through the institutionalization of mechanisms for democratic participation in governance through participatory rural appraisal (PRA) and barangay development planning (BDP) using the sustainable integrated area development (SIAD) approach both in the lowlands and the uplands;

       On its ninth year, BMFI has started its Community-Based Peace-Building Program as its key intervention at the village level.

       At the municipal level, contribute meaningfully to the over-all development of the municipalities where it is engaged in barangay-level intervention by working for the incorporation and integration of the community/barangay development plans into the municipal plans and budgets, and the formation of municipal partnerships;

       At the provincial level, facilitate the formation of provincial partnerships, networks and movements especially in the area of peace-building and democratic participation in governance;

       At the sub-regional (Northern Mindanao) and regional (Mindanao) levels, contribute meaningfully to the strengthening and the sustained relevance of sub-regional and regional coalition-building and advocacy efforts like the Mindanao Coalition of Development NGO Networks (MINCODE), Mindanao Congress of Development NGOs (MINCON), Mindanao Peace Advocates Conference (MPAC), Mindanao Peaceweavers, Kusog Mindanaw (Mindanao Force), and other multi-sectoral movements for Mindanao development, and partnership work with the various government agencies; and

       At the national and international levels, participate meaningfully in partnerships, networks and other national and international movements for peoples’ development. Among the key national engagements of BMFI are its active participation in the CODE-NGO, National Peace Conference (NPC), PMP, CAPP-SIAD and PESANTEch. BMFI has also begun collaborative work in peace-building with CRS and the UK-based Responding to Conflict (RTC).

       BMFI acts as the Mediator and Independent Secretariat of the Peace Process between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Manggagawa sa Mindanao (RPM-M), a Mindanao-based revolutionary group.

BMFI has a total of 32 staff and volunteers, 16 are women and 16 men, but only a few of them can be found at the office at any given time because most of the people are spread out in the areas where BMFI does its work – in the upland tribal communities of Claveria and Gingoog, and in the other poor barangays in the eastern part of Misamis Oriental. It also covers the poorest communities in the whole of Mindanao in its role as the mediator and Independent Secretariat in the Peace Process between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the Mindanao-based revolutionary group, the Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Manggagawa sa Mindanao (RPM-M) or the Revolutionary Workers’ Party in Mindanao.

As widespread as BMFI’s scope of operations, so are its activities diverse. Pursuing a vision of equity, development and peace for Mindanao through peace-building and sustainable integrated area development (SIAD) approach by promoting democratic participation in local governance and agrarian reform implementation obviously entails a lot of work in community organizing, networking, partnership building, research, publication and advocacy.