Australia bankrolls peace program in ARMM school campuses

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Regional officials on Friday assured to implement extensively a new Australian-funded peace-building program in southern public schools.

The Education Pathways to Peace in Mindanao, or “Pathways,” which involves the Department of Education-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and the Australian government, was launched here Friday.

“This new form of assistance from the Australian government is another tacit indication of trust and confidence to the present ARMM government,” said the region’s chief executive, Gov. Mujiv Hataman, now in his second term as governor of the autonomous region.

The Australian government is a long-time benefactor of DepEd-ARMM projects meant to improve the quality of education in the region’s five provinces — Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

DepEd-ARMM’s regional secretary, lawyer Rasol Mitmug Jr., and Mat Kimberly, a senior official in the Australian embassy in the Philippines, led Friday’s symbolic kickoff rite for the Pathways program at the regional capitol in Cotabato City.

ARMM’s assistant executive secretary, lawyer Sittie Mariam Balahim and Margarita Consolacion Ballesteros, a senior official in DepEd’s Central Office, were also present in the event.

Mitmug and Hataman had both assured of their support to the Pathways program.

Mitmug, who was Hataman’s chief-of-staff before he got to the helm of the DepEd-ARMM last January, said officials of their division offices in the region’s five provinces shall also exert their best to help the Pathways take off.

The DepEd-ARMM, operating under Hataman's ministerial control, has a peace education thrust in public schools, intended to propagate "culture of peace" and foster respect and co-existence among the region's Muslim, Christian and Lumad communities.