ARMM LGUs to conduct summits on fighting extremism

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Local government units in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) will embark on summits against misguided Islamic militancy.

The ARMM’s Bureau of Public Information (BPI) said in a statement Tuesday that the summits are meant to rally public support to efforts of the region’ chief executive, Gov. Mujiv Hataman and President Rodrigo Duterte in addressing religious extremism in the autonomous region.

The ARMM covers Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, both in mainland Mindanao, and the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

The BPI said the planned conduct of the peace and security summits by ARMM’s 116 municipalities is now being programmed by the region’s local government department and other cooperating regional agencies.

Organizers are expecting the summits to take off during the Islamic Ramadan fasting season, due to start next week.

Muslims fast from dawn to dusk during the Ramadan, which lasts for 29 to 30 days, as a religious obligation and reparation for wrongdoings.

Kirby Abdullah, secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government-ARMM, said the summits are also intended to generate public cooperation with the anti-narcotics campaign of the regional government.

“Most importantly, it is intended to combat the rising threat of terrorism and strengthen the role of local government units in promoting peace and security in all four corners of the ARMM,” Abdullah said in a separate statement Tuesday.

Abdullah, a practicing lawyer, said LGUs are clothed with ample authority, as provided for by the Local Government Code, to embark on activities complementing the pacification thrusts of the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Hataman, now in his second term as ARMM’s regional governor, said his office will support the conduct of the summits in the regions’ 116 municipalities.

Hataman is the chairman of the ARMM’s inter-agency, multi-sectoral regional peace and order council, whose members include the region’s police director, Chief Superintendent Reuben Theodore Sindac, and Major Gen. Carlito Galvez Jr. of the Western Mindanao Command.

The executive department of ARMM and the region’s Darul Iftah, also known as the House of Opinions, held just two weeks ago the Ulama Summit Against Terrorism.

The activity grouped together more than 400 moderate Islamic theologians from across the autonomous region.

The three-day event, held at the Shariff Kabunsuan Cultural Complex inside the 32-hectare capitol compound of the autonomous region in Cotabato City, was capped off with the unanimous manifestation of commitment by participants to the joint effort of Hataman and Duterte to nip religious extremism in the ARMM from the bud.

The BPI said the summits in the municipalities, to be spearheaded by local executives, will also involve clerics and traditional Moro community elders.