ARMM execs optimistic for peace process with Maguindanaon House deputy speaker

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Officials see better prospects for the southern peace process now that there is a deputy speaker for Mindanao in the House of Representatives who understands the intricacies of the now 45-year Moro rebellion.

Maguindanao First District Rep. Sandra Sema was elected deputy speaker for Mindanao early this week in a caucus by Mindanao lawmakers, according to a press communiqué emailed to The STAR by her staff, Lawyer Noel Tiampong.

Sema is wife of the former mayor of Cotabato City, Datu Muslimin, chairman of the largest of three groups in the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).

Unlike MNLF founder Nur Misuari, the Sema couple is not hostile to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Sema and her husband also both support Malacañang’s ongoing peace overture with the MILF, which splintered from the MNLF in the 1980s.

Vice Mayor Roderick Furigay of Lamitan City, whose local government unit has various programs propagating Muslim-Christian solidarity, said on Saturday he was elated with Sema’s election as deputy speaker in the House of Representatives.

“It augurs well with the efforts of President Rodrigo Duterte to empower Mindanao’s Muslim communities and involve them in governance to hasten the resolution of the Mindanao secessionist conflict,” Furigay said.

Sema, now in her third and last term as congresswoman, is also known for her being supportive of the peace programs of Mindanao’s top Catholic parochial leader, Orlando Cardinal Quevedo of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) congregation.

The OMI is involved in many interfaith programs complementing the Mindanao peace process. Most of the parishes in the congressional district Sema is representing in Congress are run by OMI missionaries.

ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman on Saturday told The STAR via text message he is confident Sema will speak well in Congress on the issues and concerns besetting Mindanao’s Moro communities.

“Having a deputy speaker who is from the Bangsamoro community is something so positive for us,” Hataman said.

Hataman said he is optimistic Duterte will succeed in putting a negotiated closure to the decades-old Moro issue with the help of House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, who is from the First District of Davao Del Norte, and a deputy speaker, Sema, who is of Maguindanaon descent.  

A senior staff of ARMM’s Department of Trade and Industry, Susana Anayatin, said it would be easier for Congress now to link up with Mindanao’s Moro sector through Sema, who is a scion of a big Maguindanaon noble clan.

“We also have Speaker Alvarez who is a Mindanaon, the third highest elected official in the country. Most importantly, we have a president who is from Mindanao, who is of mixed Visayan, Lumad and Maranaw ancestry,” Anayatin said.

Anayatin is popularly involved in various peace-building projects in Cotabato City and in Maguindanao through the peace-advocacy entity Goldin Institute Philippines.