Mangudadatu awarded honorary degrees at Dubai Leaders' Summit

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines — An honorary doctorate awarded to Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu in Dubai last week is an achievement for the Bangsamoro, peace activists said Monday.

 

Bobby Benito, director of the Regional Reconciliation and Unification Commission-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said the grant of an honorary doctorate degree in public administration by the Commonwealth University will help disprove notions that Moro communities are incapable of self-governance.

 

Benito, whose office supports the peace process between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, said Bangsamoro sectors were elated with Mangudadatu’s achievement.

 

The conferment last Thursday of the honorary doctorate degree on Mangudadatu and other leaders from different countries was part of the Dubai Leaders’ Summit.

 

The international summit is held twice a year in Dubai, United Arab Emirates as a regular program of the Commonwealth University in Belize City and the London Graduate School.

 

The London Graduate School also gave Mangudadatu a Master Class Certificate in Business Management and Leadership during the summit.

 

A merchant in Cotabato City, Pete Marquez, said on Monday that Mangudadatu’s business management certificate from a school in the United Kingdom will help convince investors that the new leaders in Maguindanao are proficient in commerce and trade.

 

“Big businesses and agricultural plantations have been sprouting like mushrooms in Cotabato City and in Maguindanao province in the past five years because we have new idealist leaders,” Marquez said.

 

Mangudadatu’s brothers in the Free and Accepted Masons were as elated.

 

“That was something that can complement the domestic peace initiatives of the Maguindanao provincial government,” said Lt. Col. Gerry Besana of the Army’s 6th Civil-Military Operations Battalion, a freemason.

 

The Dubai Leaders’ Summit is a forum encouraging cross-section leaders from across the globe to embark on practical leadership practices and governance initiatives promoting socio-economic and political welfare of constituents.

 

Mangudadatu said the honorary doctorate title he received was recognition of the province's peace-building and community empowerment initiatives in Maguindanao.

 

“This is not a personal honor. This is an honor for the entire province and its Lumad, Moro and Christian residents,” Mangudadatu said early on.

 

Maguindanao was once ruled by political warlords opposed to the educational advancement to keep most voters illiterate and dependent.

 

The Mangudadatu-led provincial government has produced 2,325 professionals in the past six years through the Maguindanao Program for Education and Community Empowerment (MagPEACE).

 

MagPEACE is presently helping 6,956 Muslim, Christian and Lumad college students.

 

The provincial government has also settled through talks 89 bloody clan wars involving feudal Moro families, many of which had spanned decades.