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In 2017, ARMM to continue fight vs conflicts with good governance

John Unson - Philstar.com

January 1, 2017 | 5:17pm

In 2017, ARMM to continue fight vs conflicts with good governance

Presidential Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza told The Star Sunday he was elated with the feat, which complements the efforts of Malacañang in restoring normalcy in conflict-stricken areas through good governance.

John Unson / File

COTABATO CITY — The year 2016 was a record year for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) where six of its local government units were cited for good governance for the first time since 1990.

The government's separate peace overtures with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) that are being managed by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process are partly focused in addressing peace and security woes in far-flung areas through governance and other systematic interventions.

The ARMM has, in the past four years, been trying to sustain the fragile peace now in areas where there are MNLF and MILF enclaves through special socio-economic programs, among them the Health, Education, Livelihood and Peace Synergy (HELPS) and the Humanitarian Development Assistance Program (HDAP).

The ARMM was created in 1990 through a plebiscite that resulted in the ratification of its Congressional charter, the Republic Act 9054, which covers Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, which are both in central Mindanao, and the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

The local government units (LGUs) of Maguindanao province, Lamitan City, and the North Upi, Parang and Wao municipalities were awarded last October 2016 by the central office of the Department of the Interior and Local Government with the Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG).

"It was something we did not expect to happen so soon," said Mayor Ramon Piang of North Upi in the first district of Maguindanao.

North Upi and Parang towns are located in Maguindanao while Wao is a hinterland town in Lanao del Sur.

Lamitan City and Maguindanao have barely risen from the devastation wrought by secessionist conflicts that caused widespread poverty among constituent-communities.

Maguindanao, which has 36 towns, have just taken off from the adverse effects of the Nov. 23, 2009 “Maguindanao massacre,” the country’s worst election-related violence ever, and the “Mamasapano incident,” that shook the nation to its core and almost derailed the southern Mindanao peace process.

The SGLG is awarded on yearly basis to municipal, provincial and city governments that meet stringent standards, including sound financial administration, human security, disaster preparedness, business competitiveness and peace and security management.

Local officials said it was only in the past four years that the ARMM started to rise as a functional regional government. So mismanaged was ARMM by past governors that its regional government became known as a hotbed of corruption.

All of its five component provinces were also tagged as “electoral cheating capitals” of the country and bastions of extremists, whose activities are detrimental to government’s domestic peace and development programs.

Lamitan City Mayor Rose Furigay told The STAR they attribute their having received the SGLG from DILG Secretary Ismael Sueno to ARMM’s current education, social welfare, health and infrastructure programs.

“Credit also goes to all our barangay leaders who are helping the city government spread economic progress to all of its component-barangays,” Furigay told The STAR via mobile phone on Sunday.

Furigay said the projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways-ARMM and its eight subordinate-district engineering offices in the region, among them market centers, seaports, concrete roads, health facilities and schools buildings hastened the delivery of services by the six LGUs that received the SGLG for 2016.

“With these infrastructure facilities rising everywhere, we are confident more LGUs in the autonomous region will receive the SGLG in the coming years,” Furigay said.

Ishak Mastura, chairman of the Regional Board of Investments, said more than P3 billion worth of capitals for various business ventures had been poured into the autonomous region in the past three years by local and foreign investors.

“We’ve had some security problems in the past three years but all were `pocket conflicts’ in remote areas that did not affect the business climate in the trading centers in the provincial and most municipal capitals,” Mastura said.

Mastura said they are expecting an upswing in the economy of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi island provinces with the entry of a big off-grid power supplier, the Kaltimex Energy Corporation, to provide an adequate supply of electricity to the three areas.

“These island provinces cannot connect to the national grid providing power to mainland Mindanao due to geographical constraints. Once fully energized, these areas will surely improve security and investment-wise,” Mastura said.

Mastura said the conflicts that rocked certain far-flung areas in the autonomous region in the past four years only involved small groups whose activities the local communities rabidly oppose.

“We’ve had some problems caused by the Abu Sayyaf and by small militant forces claiming loyalty to the Independent State of Iraq and Syria, small groups that do not have the capability to wage bigger wars against the government,” Mastura said.

A check at the office of the government’s Coordinating Committee on Cessation of Hostilities, which deals with a counterpart panel in the MILF, showed that there has not been a single encounter between the military and the MILF in any of the ARMM’s 116 towns in the past six years.

Many ARMM towns are strongholds of the MILF, which has a current peace overture with the national government through Dureza's office, aimed at ending the now four-decade Moro secessionist uprising in the country’s south.

The government and the MILF are also focused on restoring normalcy in conflict-stricken ARMM towns through bilateral infrastructure, education and social welfare interventions.

Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu said the SGLG citation his province got from the central office of DILG will improve the business climate in the province.

“We are confident more investors would be coming over to venture into various agricultural projects that can generate employment for our people,” Mangudadatu said.

Maguindanao now boasts of more than 10,000 hectares of Cavendish banana and oil palm plantations established jointly in the past six years by allied local and foreign capitalists Mangudadatu convinced to put up viable projects in the province.