MNLF to launch banana farm in Maguindanao

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines – Members of the Moro National Liberation Front  will launch today a 500-hectare Cavendish banana farm at Camp Ebrahim,  the MNLF’s main enclave in Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao.

The project is meant to generate livelihood needed to sustain the education of children of former MNLF rebels who are members of Barangay Bago Inged Multi-Purpose Cooperative.

Datumama Guiaman, chairman of the MNLF cooperative, said they do not have foreign financiers for their banana venture, but traders abroad have promised to buy their harvest.

Former Cotabato City mayor Muslimin Sema will lead the symbolic launching of the banana farm project in Barangay Bago Inged in   Datu Odin Sinsuat.

Sema said the cooperative farm will be funded by earnings of local farmers.

He said the banana farm shall serve as a model for MNLF members in other Maguindanao towns.

The MNLF signed a peace agreement with the government on Sept. 2, 1996, paving the way for the integration of more than 6,000 guerrillas  into the Armed Forces and the Philippine National Police.

Those who failed to qualify for integration into the military and the police became farmers.