Difference between revisions of "Tawi-Tawi Province, Philippines"

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==[[Tawi-Tawi News]]==
==[[Tawi-Tawi News]]==
'''NBI: Illegal human traffickers move to Palawan, islands near Sabah'''
'''Cotabato hosts Mosque exhibit'''
*Source: http://www.zamboangatoday.ph/index.php/news/13-top-stories/9047-nbi-illegal-human-traffickers-move-to-palawan-islands-near-sabah.html
*Source: http://www.philstar.com/nation/article.aspx?publicationsubcategoryid=200&articleid=787100
*Tuesday, 13 March 2012 14:26
*March 14, 2012 02:24 PM
:by PNA/PIA9-ZBST
:by   John Unson




The regional office here of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has confirmed that illegal human traffickers and illegal recruiters have transferred their operations to Palawan and island municipalities near Sabah, Malaysia.
COTABATO CITY, Philippines – A seven-day photo exhibit depicting 28 old mosques of high historical value opened here today to cap the observance of the Bangsamoro solidarity week in five Moro-dominated provinces in Mindanao.
NBI Regional Director Manuel Almendares Jr. disclosed this after their operatives and agents have failed to see alleged illegal recruiters said to be operating in the past in Zamboanga City.  


These illegal recruiters have also moved from this city to nearby island provinces, particularly island towns in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi, including Taganak Island near Sabah.  
The photo exhibit was jointly organized by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, the local chapter of the United Architects of the Philippines, and the Bureau of Cultural Heritage (BCH) in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.


He said that the transfer of operations of these illegal recruiters and illegal human trafficking came after all government law enforcement agencies began strict monitoring of their activities.  
The BCH is one of the more than a dozen support offices under the office of ARMM officer-in-charge Mujiv Hataman.


Government authorities have so far intercepted hundreds of victims of illegal recruitment and human trafficking in this city. The victims were intercepted as they were about to leave the local port and private wharfs in this city aboard motor launches usually bound for Tawi-Tawi which borders Malaysia.
The solidarity week is a yearly activity of the regional government meant to highlight the infamous Jabidah Massacre in the late 1960s, and the bloody struggle for self-rule by Moro groups that eventually resulted to the government’s grant of autonomy to Muslims in Mindanao.
There is a relentless drive against human traffickers in Zamboanga and the region and no less than City Prosecutor Darlene R. Pajarito has received the 2011 Global Trafficking-in-Persons Hero Award for prosecuting and jailing human traffickers in this city.  


Public Employment Services Officers in the region have taken pro-active roles as advocates implementing workable strategies in their communities and the Federation of PESO Managers in the Zamboanga Peninsula serving as a strategic network to expand the reach of inter-agency efforts to control Illegal Recruitment and Human Trafficking in the area.  
The photo exhibit, dubbed “Masjid: Sacred Islamic Architecture of the Philippines,” will showcase 28 stunning mosques in the country, including the P300 million newly-constructed worship site built along Tamontaka River here.


There is also a task forces on illegal recruitment and human trafficking that is monitoring these activities.
Masjid is an Arabic term for worship site.
However, Almendares said that although these illegal recruiters and human trafficking are now operating outside Zamboanga City or Western Mindanao region, the NBI regional office is keeping a close watch on such activities.  


“We are now strengthening and intensifying our intelligence gathering of information of the possible re-entry of these illegal recruiters and human trafficking operations so that they will not be victimizing again innocent applicants for non-existing job opportunities abroad, particularly in Sabah, Malaysia,the NBI regional director said.
The event will culminate on March 18, the anniversary of the Jabidah Massacre, where members of the Philippine military under President Ferdinand Marcos massacred in Corregidor some 200 Muslim trainees that staged a mutiny when they learned they were to start an insurgency in Sabah, Malaysia.
 
Sabah was ceded by the Malaysian royalty to the Sultanate of Sulu some 500 years ago as consolation for helping the Malaysians quell a rebellion in Brunei.
 
The island state was, however, leased by Sulu’s Sultan Jamalul A’lam on January 22, 1857 to the wealthy British North Borneo Company, conceding all rights and privileges over the ceded territory.
 
The Philippine government has not officially dropped its claim of Sabah until now.
 
The Jabidah Massacre is regarded by contemporary Moro communities as the incident that sparked the Muslim uprising for self-rule and subsequently ushered the birth of the secessionist Bangsamoro Independence Movement, and the Moro National Liberation Front of Nur Misuari.
 
Ardan Sali, executive director of the BCH, said their photo exhibit is a show window of the evolution of architectural designs of Islamic worship sites in the Philippines.
 
For Muslims, a Masjid is not only a place where to pray, but can also be used for peace dialogues and cross-section meetings to build consensus in addressing issues and concerns affecting the local communities.
 
Masjids are specially designed for worshipers to face the west, the direction of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, the bastion of the Islamic religion.
 
The oldest, most valuable Masjid in the country can be found at Bohe Indangan in the island town of Simunul in Tawi-Tawi.
 
The 700-year-old worship site was built by Karimul Makdum, the first ever Arab Islamic theologian to set foot in the South to propagate Islam.


==[[:Category:Tawi-Tawi, Philippines Photo Gallery|Tawi-Tawi, Philippines Photo Gallery]]==
==[[:Category:Tawi-Tawi, Philippines Photo Gallery|Tawi-Tawi, Philippines Photo Gallery]]==