ARMM kicks off Pakaradjaan fest

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines — Southern ethnic groups launched on Monday the Pakaradjaan 2018 to highlight a common aspiration for peace in a homeland torn by conflicts and calamities.

Pakaradjaan is a generic term for celebration among ethno-linguistic tribes in the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The region also covers Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, both in central Mindanao.

The provincial governors of the five provinces are also involved in the Pakaradjaan festival, organized by the ARMM’s executive department as part of the 29th founding anniversary of the autonomous region in November this year.

The festival shall be capped off with the setting up of intricate mock tribal villages inside the 32-hectare ARMM capitol southwest of Cotabato City to educate tourists on the ethnicity of Muslim, Christian and Lumad people in the autonomous region.

The five provincial governments in ARMM will help oversee the activities in the mock villages as showcases of the unique cultures and community norms of constituent-ethnic groups.

ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman and his regional natural resources secretary, Hadji Kahal Kedtag, led on Monday the launching of the Pakaradjaan 2018 in their provinces, Basilan and Maguindanao, respectively.

Parallel activities were also initiated by ARMM officials and provincial governors in Lanao del Sur, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, meant to maximize public awareness and community involvement in the Pakaradjaan 2018.

Kedtag, who hails from Datu Saudi town in Maguindanao, said the Pakaradjaan 2018 will provide people from outside ample knowledge on the history of the province.

He was designated as “traditional ruler” of the Maguindanao village inside the ARMM compound.

Maguindanao, the historical abode of legendary sultans and datus who fought the Spaniards, the Americans and the Japanese during the second world war, is also known as central Mindanao’s “flooded plains,” owing to its proximity to the perennially inundated 220,000-hectare Liguasan Delta.

Kedtag said he is thankful to the office of Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu for its commitment to support the Maguindanao contingent to the Pakaradjaan 2018.

The governor was represented in Monday’s launching of the Pakaradjaan 2018 in Buluan, capital town of Maguindanao by his son, provincial board member Jhazzer Mangudadatu.

Also present in the symbolic provincial-level Pakaradjaan 2018 kickoff rite in Buluan were Ayesha Mangudadatu-Dilangalen, who is ARMM’s regional tourism secretary and her deputy, Shalimar Candao.

In a related program at the ARMM capitol in Cotabato City Monday night, Hataman said he is convinced that this year’s commemoration of the 29th founding anniversary of the autonomous region could be the last.

“Once the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law is passed, perhaps within the year, a new political entity shall come to fore, as envisioned by the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, to replace ARMM,” Hataman said.

Hataman and members of the ARMM regional Cabinet are staunch endorsers of the proposed law, crafted jointly by representatives of the government and the MILF, a product of 18 years of peace talks.

“We in the ARMM regional government look forward to the enactment into law of that bill with utmost optimism,” said Hataman, now in his second term as regional governor.

The bill, now being deliberated on by Congress, is the enabling measure for the implementation of the two peace compacts between the government and the MILF --- the 2013 Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro and, subsequently, the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro.

Hataman said members of the MILF’s central leadership core shall be invited to grace the cultural activities in the Pakaradjaan 2018, an initial phase of the ARMM’s 29th founding anniversary feast in November this year.

“The activities will highlight how Moro communities and the indigenous Lumads in this region are bound by principles on respect for religions and cultural norms on fraternalism even before the Philippines became a sovereign state,” Hataman said.

Hataman and Kedtag both said they are certain the implementation of all accords reached by the government and the MILF will usher in lasting peace in southern communities that have become callous with bloody conflicts as consequences of the Moro issue hounding the south since the 1970s.

Kedtag said one of the main goals of the current peace overture between President Rodrigo Duterte and the MILF is to establish a Moro-led political entity focused on domestic peace and socio-economic initiatives tailored-fit to the unique geographical, political and cultural settings in ARMM.

“How can we not support such an endeavor? Our regional governor and we in the regional Cabinet are ready to step down and facilitate a transition from ARMM to a new Bangsamoro entity anytime. This year, 2018, could be the ARMM’s last very likely,” Kedtag said.