P20-million Islamic school launched in Basilan

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Officials see as boost to domestic counter-extremism initiatives the construction of a P20 million worth Islamic school building in Sumisip town in Basilan.

The school, built by the executive department of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, shall be managed by moderate Islamic preachers.

Hadja Nuriya Jamaldin, assistant superintendent of Basilan public schools, on Saturday said the newly-established Islamic learning facility will hasten the propagation by ARMM’s education department of “culture of peace” among local Muslim and Christian communities.

The school is located in Barangay Buli-Buli, capital of Sumisip town in Basilan, a component province of ARMM.

The ARMM also covers Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, both in mainland Mindanao, and the islands of Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, where religious extremists are trying to establish enclaves.

Engineer Soler Undug of the Basilan District Engineering Office, which partnered with ARMM’s Office of the Regional Governor in implementing the project, said the building was built using allocation from the region’s development subsidy from the national coffer.

Undug’s office and the municipal government of Sumisip had earlier constructed a seaport and a modern market in Barangay Buli-Buli, where the Islamic school building was built.

The infrastructures were designed to alleviate the local communities from poverty, partly blamed for the spread of religious extremism and misguided Islamic militancy in the autonomous region.

The ARMM’s education department has a unique Madaris Education Bureau, whose personnel are Islamic missionaries teaching school children principles of tolerance, interfaith solidarity and spiritual perfection based on piety and fraternalism.

Undug said he is certain the newly-constructed Islamic school in Barangay Buli-Buli will address the wanton misinterpretation by radical groups of the teachings in the Qur’an to suit their vested interests.

Extremists tried to kill Undug thrice using improvised explosive devices to derail the implementation of dozens of infrastructure projects of ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman and his public works secretary, engineer Don Loong, in former enclaves of the fanatical Abu Sayyaf in Basilan.

Jamaldin said Hataman launched early this week the newly-established Islamic school in Barangay Buli-Buli.

“He also inaugurated four other newly-built school buildings in regular campuses in Basilan early this week,” Jamaldin said.

Jamaldin was referring to the school buildings constructed recently by the ARMM government in Barangays Sinangakapan, in Concepcion and in Mangal in Basilan’s Tuburan, Lantawan and Sumisip towns, respectively.

Hataman said the new Islamic school in Barangay Buli-Buli can even extend counseling to almost a hundred members of the Abu Sayyaf who surrendered in months past, pledged allegiance to the Philippine Flag and promised to reform for good.