Campaign vs loose guns to boost Maguindanao town's economy

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines — Traders are certain of improvements soon in the economy of Buldon town — birthplace of the 1970s "Black Shirt" secessionist group — with the government's firearm reduction drive taking off in the area.

 

Chief Superintendent Graciano Mijares of the Police Regional Office-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and Maj. Gen. Arnel Dela Vega of the Army's 6th Infantry Division separately lauded on Thursday the residents of

Buldon who turned in last Tuesday 88 military-grade firearms in support of the campaign.

 

Buldon Mayor Abolais Manalao said he is thankful to his constituents for cooperating with the domestic disarmament campaign of the PRO-ARMM and the 6th ID.

 

"These came to being because all of the existing clan wars in our municipality had been settled amicably by our local government unit and the office of the provincial governor of Maguindanao," Manalao said in Filipino.

 

Manalao said he is grateful to the Army's 603rd Brigade, a component unit of 6th ID, and the Maguindanao provincial police for helping convince local residents, once locked in decades-old clan feuds, to disarm.

 

Tuesday's symbolic turnover of firearms, held in the town proper of Buldon, was witnessed by ARMM Regional Gov. Mujiv Hataman and representatives from the office of Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu.

 

Hataman is presiding chairman of ARMM's regional peace and order council, an inter-agency, multi-sectoral bloc responsible for the surrender in recent months of more than a hundred members of the Abu Sayyaf in Basilan province.

 

The former members of the Abu Sayyaf, which operates in the fashion of the Islamic State, are now returning to mainstream society with the help of the Basilan provincial government and ARMM line agencies.

 

Hataman and Mangudadatu both promised to help entice investors to put up viable agricultural ventures in the upland Buldon town.

 

The town was the scene of deadly clashes in 1972 between the Philippine Constabulary and the "Black Shirt" secessionist group led by Bangon Aratuc, the grandfather of the current municipal mayor.

 

"We are happy to witness this evolution of a town known for having so many loose firearms and so many 'rido' into an abode of peace," said Sandra Siang, president of the Kutawato Muslim Business Chamber.

 

Rido is a generic term for clan wars in most Moro dialects.

 

Siang said Thursday members of their chamber have been hearing stories from friends in Buldon purporting that there are investors trying to link up with the municipal government since 2017, interested in putting up large cavendish banana, cacao and coffee plantations in the municipality.

 

"This surrender of so many firearms by residents of Buldon, the first ever in Maguindanao, will surely improve the confidence of these investors from outside of Mindanao," Siang said.

 

Trader Pete Marquez, a member of different business clubs in central Mindanao, said he is also convinced that the peace now spreading around Buldon, which previously accounted for most number of clan wars from among Maguindanao's 39 towns, will improve its economy.

 

Anwar Malang, ARMM’s regional Trade secretary, said the turnover of 88 unlicensed firearms by Buldon residents was a tacit indication that they now want their hometown to rise from the adverse effects of secessionist conflicts and violent clan wars.

 

"That paradigm shift could be a magnet for foreign and local investors," Malang said Thursday.

 

In September last year, President Rodrigo Duterte said that Maute terrorists had been hiding in the town, prompting a search of the area by security forces. They found nothing.