Akrima Ante, coordinator of joint KFI-TdH Germany children protection project in Paglat, appealed to the parents to help build a "solid foundation" for the future of their children.

The Kadtuntaya Foundation, Inc. (KFI), through its Gender Justice and Children Protection Program,  joined the Municipality of Paglat in the Province of Maguindanao in the celebration of the International Day against Human Trafficking held at the town’s gymnasium on December 20, 2012.

Anak Kawagib, a locally-organized youth theatre group, facilitated and provided the cultural numbers   in the half-day program.

In his inspirational message, Municipal Peace and Development Officer (MPDO) Engr. Manguda Haji Usop Al Haj cited the child protection project initiated by the KFI  and Terre des Hommes-Germany in 2010 for the local government unit’s serious review of child protection policies as provided for in  RA 9208 or Anti-Human Trafficking Act.

Haji Usop told the more than 300 participants composed of youth and students, parents, teachers  and community leaders that poverty should never be used as an excuse by the parents for sending their children to work abroad and often, to the mercy of illegal recruiters.

Every barangay, he said, must have its own pangetaban (policy or set of rules) concerning the illegal recruitment of children both in-school and out-of-school. Paglat, he added, has at least two high schools which should be harnessed to the fullest.

“Education is still the best alternative in fighting poverty,” he stressed.

On her part, Akrima Ante, coordinator of KFI’s Gender Justice and Children Protection Program, credited the support of LGU of Paglat for the gains attained in anti-human trafficking campaign and for the empowerment of youth and children.

“Our obligation to our children is to give them a solid foundation so that when they reach the proper age, they will be in a position to make the right decisions,” she stressed.

Meanwhile, EED-Brot fuer die Welt Civil Peace Service (CPS) personnel Daniel Ong commended the stakeholders present “for showing to the rest of the country and the world that there is such a town in Mindanao where the LGU, people’s organizations and NGOs work together for the protection and enhancement of the rights and interest of the children.”

FAB AS BEST OPTION, says Guiamel Alim (standing) before the audience in Alamada forum. Seated from the left are: Rodelio Ambangan of MPPM, Prof. Reydan Lacson of NDU Peace Center, Alamada mayor Bartolome Lataza Jr., and EED-CPS personnel Elvira Angsinco.

“Peace is in our hands.  Let’s make use of the Framework of Agreement on Bangsamoro (FAB) to give it a chance.”

Thus exhorted KFI director Guiamel Alim the estimated 300 participants in a multi-sectoral forum on FAB held at the municipal gymnasium of Alamada, North Cotabato on December 4, 2012 as a kick-off activity for the Mindanao Week of Peace.

Alim, who was one of the invited resource persons in the forum, compared FAB to a house with roof and walls, but no windows yet.

“We should be a part in the completion of the construction of the house,” he told the crowd composed mostly of students, teachers, community leaders and local government officials.

The FAB, according to Alim, is a design crafted by the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to solve the Bangsamoro problem.

However, he also pointed out that the FAB should have “a norm of inclusivity” to include all stakeholders, especially the indigenous people, the civil society, and the local government units.

After explaining the basic features of the FAB, Alim further discussed the 15 steps towards the creation of the Bangsamoro government in 2016.

If one step in the roadmap goes amiss, then the whole process will be derailed, he told the audience.

“What will happen if nobody talks about peace anymore?” he asked.

The biggest contribution of the ongoing GPH-MILF peace process, according to him, is the dramatic  decline in the incidence of armed clashes due to the ceasefire mechanisms in place.

He then called on the forum participants to support every step of the peace process from FAB to the signing of a comprehensive compact and the establishment of Bangsamoro government in 2016.

Moreover, he challenged them to fight against the “spoilers of peace,” to strengthen the capacities of  institutions and communities to engage in the peace process, and to improve the relations between and among the tri-people of Mindanao.

Lastly, he called for unity an solidarity between and among Moro revolutionary fronts.  The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), which signed a Final Peace Agreement (FPA) with the Philippine government in 1996, should pursue what it thinks is just, he added.

But the best option he said is: “Let’s prove that FAB is the best option.”

The other resource persons who spoke in the said forum were Prof. Reydan Lacson of the Notre Dame University (NDU)-Peace Center and Rodelio Ambangan of the Mindanao People’s Peace Movement (MPPM).

The Framework agreement is a key to the liberation of Bangsamoro people,says Mohagher Iqbal (left), Chair of MILF peace panel. Seated at the right is CBCS Chairperson Guiamel Alim. Photo: Derek Sanico/Kadtuntaya Images

The Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) which the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed on October 15, 2012 in Malacanang Palace is the “best document so far” in the 15 years on- and-off peace negotiations between the two parties.

This statement was made by MILF Panel Chair Mohagher Iqbal to the more than 100 leaders and representatives of civil society organizations (CSOs) in a forum on FAB initiated by the Consortium of Civil Society (CBCS) and held at the KFI-run Community Training and Resource Center (CTRC) in Cotabato City on October 30 this year.

“The Framework is a product of negotiation. It is a key to the liberation of our people, a title to something, a key to our ideological, political and economic strengthening,” he said.

However, he also cautioned the CSOs that while FAB offers great optimism, “we should not create big expectations we can’t fulfill.”

“Let’s not repeat past mistakes. If we can’t, for example, handle international donors and interventions, patay tayo (it’s our end)!” he warned.

He then called on everybody, especially the CSOs, to work hard to make the FAB work and succeed.

Like building a house

The commitment and sincerity of both parties (GPH and MILF) are, according to Iqbal, the key which led to the successful signing of the FAB and the still continuing peace negotiations.

“I see sincerity in the Pinoy (Aquino) government,” he said. And there is enough guarantee too that the agreement will be properly implemented, he added.

Among the safeguards he cited are: the non-disbandment of the peace panels even after a comprehensive peace compact has been signed, the continuing presence of international actors to monitor the implementation of the agreement, and the provision for the bilateral implementation of the accord.

He likened the peace process to building a house. It is not totally finished, he said, but there are enough safeguards to ensure its final completion.

“The house has been constructed and almost ready for occupancy. We welcome the indigenous people (IPs) to join us in that house,” Iqbal said.

Normalization issues

During the open forum, Iqbal made it clear that there will be no reintegration of the MILF forces to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine National Police (PNP) as in the case of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) when the latter signed the Final Peace Agreement (FPA) with the Philippine government in 1996.

Instead, he said that there will be a gradual decommissioning of MILF forces under the watch of an international body, the gradual withdrawal of AFP from Moro areas, and the internal policing whose details are still being discussed by both parties.

He also mentioned that the disbandment of private armies will be a joint effort of the GPH and the MILF.

The break-away Bangsamoro Islamic Fighting Forces (BIFF) led by Ustadz Ameril Umra Kato, he admitted, will be treated as a security issue. But the MILF, he said, will approach it in a ‘diplomatic’ way: “If we are attacked, we defend.”

Harmonizing FAB and FPA

On the question of how to harmonize the FAB with the 1996 FPA, Iqbal answered that the FAB is still a document in the process and that the two could be only harmonized after the enactment of the Bangsamoro Basic Law.

“We (MILF) worked on what’s lacking in the Final Peace Agreement. But what we are for is the greatest interest of the Bangsamoro people,” he explained.

He also made it clear that the present Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) is not a product of the GPH-MNLF peace negotiation, but rather a creation of the Regional Consultative Commission during the Corazon Aquino administration.

“Your assertion is kulang (not enough),” he told the apparently MNLF supporters in the forum.

Rights of IPs

The indigenous peoples (IPs) should be an integral part of the Bangsamoro government in-the-making, according to Iqbal.

The IPs, he added, are well-represented in the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF), in the MILF peace panel, and in the latter’s technical working committees. They will be also assured of two representatives in the soon-to-be constituted Bangsamoro Transition Authority.

The basic rights of the IPs be respected, protected and guaranteed, he assured the IP representatives who attended the forum.

But he also reminded them: “You must still continue asserting your rights, so we will not forget!”

The Bangsamoro, he said, also includes the IPs. And if they opt to exclude themselves later, they have the freedom of choice.

Barangay captain Pacita Colina (center) reads the provisions of the CBFM title. Seated beside her on the left are Engr. Bert Acosta of OSCC and SB member Tibong Guilay. At the right is Cezar Luz of DENR-CENRO. Photo by: Derek Sanico/KFI Images

All is set for the perimeter survey of the 1,150 has. of lands covered by the Community-based Forest Management (CBFM) granted by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to an organization of indigenous peoples based in Barangay Tomicor, Municipality of Ampatuan in the province of Maguindanao.

In a stakeholders’ consultation facilitated by the Kadtuntaya Foundation, Inc. (KFI) in the said barangay last September 27, 2012, more than 50 members of the Fagumfungan Teduray Tomicor (FTT), including members of its tribal council, have discussed and eventually agreed to the conduct of the said survey to determine the boundaries covered by the CBFM awarded to FTT and that of the Integrated Forest Management Agreement (IFMA) earlier awarded to Magsaysay and Sons logging firm which is now owned by the Consunji logging corporation. Target date for the said survey is set on early November 2012.DENR’s Community Environment Resource Office (CENRO) and two representatives from the Office of Southern Cultural Communities (OSCC) were also represented in the said gathering.

Ronnie Ampok, coordinator of KFI’s Land Rights and Land Tenure Improvement program, explained to the participants that the consultation was both aimed at determining the boundaries through a survey and at forging a dialogue with representatives of the logging firm.

“DENR already granted us the CBFM tenure plus extra planting materials. We hope that DENR and OSCC, whose representatives are here today, would be able to help us too with the survey and in facilitating dialogue with Consunji,” Ampok said.

The CBFM title was awarded to FTT on November 9, 2009, two weeks before the infamous Maguindanao massacre which took place in the adjoining village of Masalay, also in Ampatuan. The application process for individual titles begins two and a half months after the granting of the title to the organization or community.

DENR support

DENR-CENRO representative Cezar Lu told the Teduray claimants that their presence alone at the meeting is “a proof that we care for you.”

Lu further said that CBFM has become the central project of the government related to environment and stressed that this program is “not owned by the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) but by the government and the DENR.”

Instead of old-growth trees, newly planted palm trees now dot the sorrounding hills of Tomicor.

“Most of the Teduray lands are timberlands. Tomicor is so rich in resources, but we only see charcoal-making as the people’s main source of livelihood,” he said.

Lu also told the IP claimants not to be afraid of the Consunji logging firm and exhorted the stakeholders to help and support each other for the success of the project. A total of 7,000 coffee seedlings, he said, are already ready for distribution to approved CBFM cliamants.

“I want that in ten years the people of Tomicor are already wearing shoes. Ipaglaban natin ito (Let’s fight for it),” he challenged them.

Tribal leaders, not dealers

Meanwhile, Engr. Albert Acosta of the OSCC appealed to the Teduray CBFM beneficiaries to refrain from simply selling their lands to the outsiders, either out of poverty or sheer ignorance.

“Let us be tribal leaders, not dealers,” he told them. Further, he asked the tribal council to enact appropriate policies related to the use of lands.

Pacita Colina, the Teduray barangay head of Tomicor, raised the same appeal to her constituents: “Let us fulfill what we have agreed on before. This CBFM has already been granted to us. Let us do away with this old culture of selling away our lands.”

Colina also exhorted her co-villagers to plant other crops and fruit trees other than coffee which is the one being propagated by the DENR.

CBFM or CADT?

Sangguniang Bayan (municipal council) member Tibong Guilay, who is also the chairman of Committee on Land Conflict, said in  jest that DENR is now acting as the bida (main actor) or datu in the present land tenure claim. He reminded that he was still working at the Provincial Assessor’s office of Maguindanao when DENR granted the CBFM title to FTT.

But he offered the services of his office to the Tomicor IPs: “Whatever you need, come to me or to my office in the Sanguniang Bayan.” He also informed them that he already asked the mayor to prioritize the farm-to-market road in Tomicor.

During the open forum, Teduray leader Santos Bello accused the DENR of being ‘guilty’ in selling IP lands to the settlers. To which, DENR’s Luz answered: “ The government owns the land; the IPs should not survive on charcoal-making.”

Bello also asked which should be prioritized first: CBFM or Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT)? Ampok and OSCC’s Acosta replied: “CBFM, especially as it has already been awarded.”

A total of 17,000 has. of lands spanning the two provinces of Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat are being claimed by the Tedurays, Lambangians and Dulangan-Manobos as part of their ancestral lands. Though a number of tribal organizations did apply for CADT, most of these applications did not prosper due to bureaucratic hurdles and some loopholes in the IPRA law, especially the devolution of powers of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) to the ARMM.

Members of Brgy. Manggay Women Association (BAMAWA) in Sultan Sumagka display their newly produced coconut oil after a training on oil production. Initial production totalled 117 bottles.

The Food is Peace, a project jointly implemented by the Kadtuntaya Foundation, Inc. (KFI) and the Bread for the World (BfW) in the municipalities of Datu Anggal Midtimbang (DAM) and Sultan Sumagka in Maguindanao, has shifted to organizing Moro women farmers as a strategy for the latter’s empowerment in both the family and community affairs.

The sectoral organizing came in the wake of the workshop on gender analysis and reproductive health conducted in selected barangays of both towns in June this year, says project officer Norlyn Odin.

In September 17, a total of 55 women farmers from the two municipalities have completed their season-long Farmers Field School (FFS) on vegetables. The 153 FFS graduates came from Barangays Manggay, Macadayon, Kuden and Gadungan of Sultan Sumagka and Barangay Tulunan of DAM.

CARE FOR GOVERNANCE. KFI Director Guiamel Alim explains to Tiyakap leaders the context which calls on TK to participate as well in promoting good and open governance.

“Let’s go provincial, let’s not only focus on community peace building,” thus challenged KFI director Guiamel Alim leaders of the grassroots-based peace organization Tiyakap Kalilintad (TK or Care for Peace) during an assessment meeting with them on July 9 in Cotabato City.

After giving an update on the status of the GPH-MILF peace process and the possible political scenarios, Alim, who is also among the prime movers of the newly formed CSO-led watchdog ARMM Watch, urged the TK leaders to expand the scope of their work from community peace building and monitoring of human rights violations and ceasefire to the field of governance.

“Tiyakapan tanu su kakamal (Let’s take care of governance),” he told the 12 TK leaders who came all the way from the municipalities of Datu Piang, Datu Saudi, Mamasapano, Shariff Saidona, Talayan, all in the province of Maguindanao.

Alim explained to the said leaders that “there is still a lot of things to do,” especially that the political status and socio-economic component of the Bangsamoro issue in the ongoing GPH-MILF peace negotiations are not yet settled or agreed upon.

Governance, he stressed, is very important as the MILF has no experience in governance yet and the brief experience of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), when it was at the helm of leadership in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), was considered by many as a disaster.

“We need good, articulate leaders from the barangay to municipal and provincial levels. We need a platform of governance too,” he said.

Likewise, he challenged the TK leaders to enhance the capacities of their organizations in the areas of administration, management and monitoring of open governance from registration of voters to actual polls.

“Some international NGOs will just give you a service car or let you eat pastil (cooked rice mixed with a portion of grounded fish or meat wrapped in banana leaf) to do their work,” he told them in a swipe at unethical practices of some big NGOs and INGOs in crisis areas where TK also operates.

At the end of the said meeting, the participants have organized a steering committee tasked with the preparation of TK General Assembly set sometime in September which will discuss and approve the new mandate, thrusts, structure and functions of the organization in the light of the present realities and fast changing political situation particularly within the ARMM and Central Mindanao.

A total of 100 participants coming from Tiyakap chapter organizations, CSOs, LGUs and INGOs are expected to attend the said assembly.

Organized by the KFI and the Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society (CBCS) in 2003, Tiyakap Kalilintad operates in six towns of Maguindanao (with Talayan as new expansion area) and two barangays of Midsayap in North Cotabato.

Mohagher Iqbal (seated right, foreground) updates the IP leaders on the current status of the GPH-MILF peace process.

Key leaders of Indigenous People (IP) in Central Mindanao have recently expressed their ‘full support’ to the peace panel of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in its ongoing peace negotiations with the Philippine government.

The commitment of support was made by 30 leaders and representatives of Teduray, Lambangian and Dulangan Manobo tribes from the province of Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat during their meeting and dialogue in Cotabato City on June 23 with Mohagher Iqbal and Jun Mantawil, chairman of MILF panel and head of its secretariat, respectively.

Timuay Jovito Martin of Timuay Justice and Governance (TJG) and Regional Chairman of Tribal Council in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) said that his group salutes the Moro mujahideens for offering their lives to protect their rights, especially their right to self-determination.

“We give our full support to your negotiations with the Philippine government because we believe that this could be a way for us to attain our common aspiration, the former South Upi mayor Martin said.

He added that this peace process might as well be the last struggle of the Bangsamoro:  “In case we still don’t attain it or if the government will still not grant it to us, I doubt if our generation could still afford to shed blood to protect our ancestral lands and the rights of the Bangsamoro.”

Another Teduray tribal leader from Upi also told Iqbal and Mantawil that they really would like to talk about peace with their brothers in the MILF.  Relations between Moro and IPs have been strained since the outbreak of the Moro secessionist war in Mindanao in early 70s. But since the recent revival of their tribal and kinship councils, he claimed that the good feelings of the Tedurays towards the Moro as their brethren have been reawakened.

IPs factored in

Iqbal did not only thank the IP leaders for their messages of support; he also invited them to the MILF-organized Bangsamoro Leaders Assembly slated on July 6-9 in Camp Darapanan where, he said, the IPs could also express their commitment of support to the MILF in the peace process.

The IPs, according to him, are ‘factored in’ in the MILF negotiations with the government, both in the committee and the panel levels: “Our position is transparent.  We had a representative from the IPs from the very start.”

He then mentioned the late Roger Adamat, Datu Ignacio Ikling, Datu Antonio Kinoc who presently sits as IP representative in its panel, and Timuay Melanio Ulama who acts as its IP consultant.

The Moro and the IPs, he stressed, were together under the sultanates, they traded well with each other and relations between them were generally good. There had been some problems, he admitted, but explained that these were ‘exceptions rather than the rule.’

“During the Moro-Spanish wars, we were not the only ones who resisted; the B’laans were there too. And during the American occupation, the IPs were also involved, especially the Manobos in the famous Alangkat uprising,” he told the IP leaders.

Even the Moro Province created by the American colonial government was 90 percent populated by the Moro and non-Islamized tribes in Mindanao, he added.

“The MILF position in the peace process is for an inclusive governance. Our sultanate system and timuay justice and governance were grabbed from us. Thus we have to change the power relationship between Manila and us, define what belongs to them and to us,” he said.

Remaining issues

On his update on the current status of the MILF-GPH peace process, Iqbal told the IP leaders that only the political solution is not yet resolved in the 15 years of the talks: “It’s about the political governance which we both have lost.”

The four remaining but difficult issues, according to him, are the following: power-sharing, wealth sharing, territory or geographical area to be covered by the envisioned Bangsamoro sub-state, and the transition period.

Their government counterpart in the talks, he said, has again offered the ARMM for them to govern but they rejected the offer as what they did many times in the past.

“We can’t anymore accept that it’s only Manila deciding for us,” he said.

But Iqbal added that even the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) during their recent solidarity talks, has admitted that they are ‘in a quandary’ as to the status and implementation of the Final Peace Accord they signed with the Philippine government in 1996.

“If we accept the government offer, that would be it – nothing has changed.  We have already dropped our option to secede, but not our right to self-determination or self-governance. We are thinking of the collective interest of the Bangsamoro people,” Iqbal stressed.

 Most crucial stage of negotiation

The GPH-MILF Decision Points on Principles signed by both panels during the 27^th exploratory talks on 24^th of April, 2012 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is the ‘only concrete document’ signed during the two years of the Aquino administration, according to the two MILF panelists. But it is a template which still has to be discussed in details, explained Iqbal.

During their last exploratory talks in May 29-31 in Malaysia, Iqbal said that his group has rejected ARMM again and the proposed power and wealth sharing offered by their counterparts. There were no agreements and decision points reached, he added.

He also admitted that both parties initially discussed DDR (disarmament, demobilization and rehabilitation), but the MILF panel refused and never bulged.  The issue of arms should be the last item to be discussed in the negotiations, he said.

“We told them that we rather talk about normalization, peacebuilding and justice for the wrongs done on the Bangsamoro.  No forgive and forget; justice must be there.”

After the back channeling made by the Malaysian facilitator later, Iqbal said that both parties have expressed their respective positions.  He is hoping that they could still see the proverbial ‘glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.’

“We are now in the most crucial stage of the negotiations. If ever a peace accord will be signed, it does not mean that our work is done. We still can’t relax.  It is about empowerment, the IPs included.”

Land issues

During the open forum, a tribal leader from South Upi raised the issue of fears of Teduray and Lambangians that their lands may be taken away from them once a peace deal is signed and the MILF takes over power. These are unfounded fears, answered Iqbal as Mamalu and Tabunaway, their common ancestors, had traditional areas and boundaries which are ‘not fixed.’

“Land issues between the Moros and IPs are not institutionalized.  We can talk about it; it’s our role to settle them amicably,’” he said.  

In South Upi, he stressed that IPs must be the priority when it comes to land as they are the majority there. If there are still available lands left, he told the IPs that they may share some to the Maguindanaoans.

Furthermore, he assured the IPs that they are integral to their struggle and challenged them to also look into the role of migrant settlers in the dispossession of IPs of their ancestral lands. He cited as an example Barangay Tubak in Ampatuan town, a Dulangan Manobo area which has been encroached upon by settlers, particularly by the Ilongos. He emphasized that the IPs and the Moros are the real victims, thus they have to help each other.

Mantawil, on the other hand, explained to the IP leaders that the kind of government the MILF wants to form has laws and a constitution that will guarantee IP rights especially their rights to their ancestral lands.

Moro-IP relations

On the question of a Teduray woman tribal leader why there was no specific mention of IPs in the 10 Decision Points on Principle and how can Moro-IP relations be enhanced at the community level, Iqbal admitted that there was really none but Item 10 guarantees IPs’ rights to democratic participation and respect for their culture and traditional belief systems.  He added that in the MILF comprehensive compact proposal, two seats are automatically reserved for IP representatives in the legislature.

“We are representing as a nation, as a bangsa. But in the comprehensive compact, the details (about IP rights) are there,” added Mantawil.

Iqbal also exhorted the IPs to resolve problems with Moros at the community level by themselves.  He acknowledged that prejudices,   animosities and stereotyping do exist but insisted that justice and mutual respect are far more important.

“It’s our basis of unity. I know it is difficult but we have to start. We have to sort out our differences. We were born here, we will die here. Let us forge mutual understanding between us,’” he said, to the warm applause of the IP leaders.

He also hinted that compared to the Bangsamoro people who have a unifying factor in Islam and Moro as an identity, their ancestral land and governance system should bind together the IPs.

The bumiputra policy in Malaysia, which gives equal rights to the native Malays is, according to him, an affirmative action which could be emulated once the Bangsamoro has attained self-governance as a result of the peace process.

In response to the question of one young Teduray peace and human rights advocate on what the IPs could do in case the GPH-MILF peace process collapses, Igbal advised that they need not hold arms but concentrate instead on strengthening the open legal mass struggle. 

“Your formation of Mamalu-Tabunaway kinship councils is on the right tract.  Let’s not wait from above, start on your own level. Express your demands though your own organizations,” he exhorted them.

The dialogue of the IP leaders from the Cotabato Cordillera with the MILF peace panel was organized by the Kadtuntaya Foundation, Inc. (KFI) under the Civil Peace Service program of the Evangelischer Entwicklunsdienst (EED-CPS), Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society (CBCS), Organization of the Teduray and Lambangian Conference (OTLAC), and the Mamalu-Tabunaway Kinship Council.

Arniel Ali (standing, in white shirt) explains the project and the basic principles of DRR to residents of Barangay Dapantis, Rajah Buayan.

A total of 90 participants in two barangays of Rajah Buayan, Province of Maguindanao have taken part in Community Orientation on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) conducted by the Kadtuntaya Foundation, Inc. (KFI) last June 7 and 8, 2012.

According to Arniel Ali, community organizer and staff member of Diakonie-Katastrophenhilfe-assisted “Reducing Risk, Promoting Peace: An Integrated DRR, Recovery and Peace Project in Central Mindanao,” the said activity, which was respectively held in barangays Panadtaban and Dapantis, was actively participated by community residents,  their leaders, as well as by local government officials and even by so-called local commanders in the area.

Main contents of the orientation were the basic principles of DRR (identification of hazards or risks, vulnerability analysis, and appropriate response); Philippine laws related to DRR such as PD 1566 and RA 10121; and situational analysis and conflict management.

Ali further said that community response to their series of orientations has been positive, with nine out of 12 barangays expressing gratitude for the informative inputs KFI have given or shared to them.  But the most commonly still asked question by the participants, he added, was: What livelihood project will follow next.

Rajah Buayan and Datu Salibo, another town covered by the project, are two newly-created towns in Maguindanao during the reign of the Ampatuan clan. In addition to displacements caused by intermittent fighting between the government forces and the Moro fronts including splinter groups, their predominantly Maguindaon populace are also frequently affected by the perennial flooding due to the increasing water level of Pulangi River or Rio Grande de Mindanao.

Thus, a series of seminar-workshops on climate change and International Humanitarian Law (IHL) will be their next priority project activities, Ali said.

On May 24, 2012, the same activity was conducted in the Municipality of Rajah Buayan with the participation of 150 local government officials

Yasser Maulana (center), a KFI community organizer and FFS practitioner, explains to farmers the importance of proper germination during the Training of Trainers (TOT) in Barangay Kuden.

A series of Farmers Field School (FFS) trainings was conducted by KFI’s Bread for the World-assisted “Food is Peace” project in the municipality of Sultan Sumagka (formerly Talitay), Maguindanao Province during the months of March and April this year.

The conduct of said trainings was a result of the consultations made by the project with farmers’ organizations in Sultan Sumagka and Datu Anggal Midtimbang (DAM) early this year, says project manager Norlyn Odin. 

Unlike traditional approaches, which rely on extension workers providing advice to farmers, FFS enable groups of farmers to find out the answers for themselves, i.e., they can develop solutions to their own problems.

On March 3-7, 2012, a total of 23 participants composed of leaders of farmers’ associations, project staff and an officer of MADAKIL People’s Organization (MPOI), an umbrella of farmers’ organization in the area, took part in a FFS Trainers Training held in Barangay Kuden, Sultan Sumagka.

This was then followed by community-based FFS on vegetable production conducted in Barangay Gadungan on April 16-24 with 35 farmers, 13 of them women, as participants.

The training centered on the principles of FFS and basic knowledge on growing vegetables, particularly on the process of seed and site selection, germination, transplanting, monitoring and pest management. Moreover, participants were taught how to build trellis and how to make natural concoctions to improve soil fertility and manage pests.

Farm trials were later conducted on April 25-30 with 41 farmer participants from Gadungan, Manggay, Makadayon (all of Sultan Sumagka), and Barangay Tulunan of DAM.

The Food is Peace project was officially launched on March 9-10, 2011 with primary objectives of improving food security and promoting peace and participatory democracy in the two towns under its coverage.

In January 26-27 this year, Anna Niklasch, head of the Asian Department of the German-based Bread for the World, visited the project areas and held meetings and dialogue with both partner organizations and local government officials.

A prominent leader of civil society in Mindanao said that acting Governor Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) has laid down the foundation of reform in his 100 days in office.

Guiamel Alim, executive director of Kadtuntaya Foundation, Inc. (KFI) and chairman of the Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society (CBCS) made the remark in an interview with The Mindanao Cross, a Cotabato City-based community paper after Hataman’s State of the Region Address (SoRA) at the ARMM compound in Cotabato City last April 16, 2012.

“He has started to reorganize a working bureaucracy and has already proven that something can be done to improve the performance of the ARMM,” Alim explained.

Though it was ‘a good start,’ Alim, however, stressed that “the challenge ahead is great.”

The new ARMM governor, he said, has yet to show that aside from the initial success in fighting corruption in the Department of Education and Culture (DepEd), he can also do the same in other agencies of the government as well as the LGUs of which he has only supervisory powers.

In his SoRA, the governor highlighted his campaign to curve the endemic corruption in DepEd as an area where his government has made remarkable headway.

Asked on how he would rate Hataman’s performance according to the objectives that were set out at the start of his term, Alim answered that he will give the later “an average grade.”

Social contract  

As the head of the CBCS, the biggest network of Moro civil society organizations (CSOs) in the country, Alim said that his group is open to work in partnership with ARMM in its reform agenda.

However, the ARMM government, according to Alim, “must establish a social contract for cooperation and collaboration towards the goals for reform with all other sectors, including the business, CSOs, military and the traditional leaders among others.”

Hataman’s government, according to him, has been consulting the CSOs from the very start.

“The CSOs will continue to constructively engage with the ARMM government. Specifically, we will help the ARMM government do monitoring to ensure that the reform agenda will push through,” he said.

In the said interview, Alim also stated that the CSOs would like to “optimize every little opportunity within the ARMM to meet the needs of our people.”

Every best practice that we can learn from the present ARMM, he said, can be carried over to any post conflict government: “The ARMM now can serve as a prototype capacity-building institution that will provide hands-on experiences in governance. This will be useful for any future government.”

Priorities

On his opinion on what should be done during the remaining 18 months of Hataman’s tenure, Alim said that the ARMM government should “aggressively pursue delivery of basic services and continue its anti-corruption campaign. “

Specifically, he pointed out the need for it to lobby for a general re-registration of voters to ensure clean elections. He added that it has to also work closely with the security sector to improve the peace and security in the ARMM and to engage the public in open governance ensuring people’s participation.

“It must lead the local government units in running accountable and transparent governance,” he stressed.

Hataman has been appointed by Pres. Benigno Aquino to head the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao government as provided for in Republic Act (RA) 10153.  He has only 18 months before the synchronized elections in 2013 to implement an agenda to reform ARMM.