BARMM officials push responsible Facebook use among students

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Newly elected members of the 80-seat parliament in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) want teachers, psychologists and religious leaders to join forces in teaching schoolchildren the responsible use of Facebook so they can become law-abiding netizens.

They separately told reporters on Friday, October 30, that Facebook, if utilized wisely, can be a good tool for molding children into responsible adults.

Hanie Bud, a former official of the now-defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao who was elected on September 14 as a member of the 80-seat Bangsamoro parliament, told reporters that elementary pupils and high school students in the autonomous region, as young netizens, just need to be guided by their teachers, preachers from the Muslim and Christian religious communities, and psychologists on the proper use of Facebook.

Officials of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region said on Thursday that there had been no recorded cases of Facebook-related violence in all five provinces of BARMM and its three cities since the use of Facebook became a global fad.

“We are Muslims and Islam has profound teachings on the use of proper, sensible learning processes to make us become better persons, caring and respectful to others regardless of religious identities. Facebook can be a good instrument for promoting that,” said Bud, who had also served as a three-term mayor of Maluso town in Basilan.

Bud’s colleague in the BARMM Government Coalition (BGC) Party, Amir Mawallil, a practicing journalist, said he also shared the same stand on the issue.

Mawallil, also elected as BGC’s representative to BARMM’s lawmaking body during the September 14 elections in BARMM, was a former director of the Bureau of Public Information of ARMM, which was replaced by a more empowered BARMM in 2019, a product of two decades of peace overtures between the national government and the southern Moro communities.

Mawallil said that, besides the mainstream media, Facebook can be a good medium for spreading positive reports about regional governance, something that residents of BARMM ought to know every day to understand how their regional government is working for them.

Lawyer Ishak Mastura, who will represent a parliamentary seat in Maguindanao del Norte province in the BARMM parliament, said Facebook, if utilized properly, can be a very effective conduit for religious unity among BARMM's Muslim and non-Muslim residents.

"It can also be a good source of information about the good effects of the peace process between the national government and the Moro communities in Mindanao, partly aiming to make conflict-stricken areas in BARMM rise and become peaceful and progressive," Mastura pointed out.

The spokesperson of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party, lawyer and now also a duly elected parliament member Naguib Sinarimbo, said local executives in BARMM and its regional government can cooperate in educating elementary pupils and high school students on the proper use of Facebook.

“There wasn’t any Facebook-related violent incident in the Bangsamoro region. To sustain that, we have to instill in the minds of our young constituents how to use Facebook sensibly, all for learning purposes and as a medium for promoting unity among all sectors in the autonomous region,” said Sinarimbo.

Local executives in Region 12, which is adjacent to BARMM, had urged the Department of Education to implement measures to ensure the proper use of Facebook by students and provide comprehensive mental health services for learners in schools in their cities and provinces.

South Cotabato Gov. Reynaldo Tamayo said he was not against the use of Facebook as a tool for peace education for children in their province.

Tamayo, chairperson of the multisectoral Regional Peace and Order Council 12, had said that he was not against proposals by local and international peace advocacy groups to utilize Facebook in educating children on the importance of adhering to state laws and respecting the cultures, traditions and religions of their classmates and schoolmates.

Radio reports on Thursday in Region 12 and BARMM stated that the central office of the Department of Education had announced early this week that it was not opposed to proposals to educate elementary and high school students on the responsible use of Facebook.

Local executives in Region 12 and BARMM were elated by DepEd’s announcement, telling reporters that they would fully support any such program the department may implement throughout the country.