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==ARMM workers clamor for peace, efficiency== | |||
*Source: http://www.philstar.com/nation/article.aspx?publicationsubcategoryid=200&articleid=789131 | |||
*March 20, 2012 11:25 AM | |||
:by John Unson | |||
COTABATO CITY - Hundreds of government workers in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao marched barefoot inside the 32-hectare ARMM compound here to show support to the Southern peace process and to Malacañang’s effort to reform the graft-ridden regional bureaucracy. | |||
The event capped yesterday’s culmination of the ARMM’s Bangsamoro “solidarity week,” a yearly event highlighting the grant of autonomy to Mindanao’s Muslim communities as a solution to the bloody secessionist rebellion waged from the 1970s to the late 1980s by the Moro National Liberation Front. | |||
For organizers, this year’s week of peace was peculiar because it was observed throughout the region at the backdrop of a caretaker administration taking over the regional government. President Benigo Aquino III has appointed the caretaker government to introduce reforms in the regional bureaucracy, perceived as synonymous with perennial large-scale embezzling of state funds, “ghost employees” and warlords relying on private armies to perpetuate political power. | |||
Something new | |||
“Marching barefoot for a cause inside the ARMM compound was an emotional experience for me. It was something the region’s rank and file personnel have not done since the region was established in 1990,” said FO2 Alipuddin Alibasa, a member of the region’s fire protection bureau. | |||
The regional fire marshal, Senior Supt Warlito Daus, and the newly-appointed ARMM police director, Chief Supt. Mario Avenido, have both been very vocal about the support of their respective units to the on-going peace talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. | |||
Avenido’s first official directive to all units in the ARMM police was the implementation of inexpensive, “indigenous” projects involving the communities they serve to complement the President's | |||
confidence-building efforts with Muslim communities in areas that host MNLF and MILF forces. | |||
Employees of the ARMM’s health department told reporters they joined the march to show they also support the joint efforts of Malacanang and the region’s acting governor, Mujiv Hataman, to fix the political, administrative and fiscal problems that have hounded the regional government since its inception through a plebiscite in selected Mindanao towns in 1990. | |||
Hadji Nash Maulana, director of the ARMM’s Bureau of Public Information, said the march was also meant to express their appreciation of the sacrifices of thousands of Moro guerillas that perished in the MNLF’s struggle for self-governance in the 1970s. | |||
“It was the blood, sweat and tears of those martyrs that catalyzed the creation of the autonomous region, which is unique for having its own executive and legislative branches that govern its regional affairs,” Maulana said. | |||
Peaceful solutions | |||
Ustadz Esmail Ebrahim, executive director of the Ulama Conference of the Philippines, a 2,000-member organization of Muslim clerics, said he joined the march to show his support to the government’s separate peace overtures with the MNLF and the MILF. | |||
“We want the so-called Mindanao problem addressed through dialogues among stakeholders and the Philippine government and all of its facets, such as local government units, in Mindanao,” Ebrahim said. | |||
Ebrahim said he and friends in the ARMM’s natural resources department joined the march to show their opposition to any possible use of military solution to address the peace and security concerns in Moro communities. | |||
The ARMM covers Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, located in Central Mindanao, the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, and the cities of Marawi and Lamitan. | |||
The MNLF has dozens of communities in the autonomous region now dubbed “peace zones” under its September 2, 1996 peace pact with government. | |||
The MILF, on the other hand, has more than 50 “minor and major camps” in the area. | |||
All government-acknowledged enclaves of the group are covered by the Agreement on General Cessation of Hostilities crafted in Cagayan de Oro in July 1997 by rebel and government negotiators as security mechanism to prevent any outbreak of hostilities in potential flashpoint areas while the GPH-MILF talks are underway. | |||
==ARMM DPWH Sec. Sadain conducts ocular inspection of projects in Tawi-Tawi== | ==ARMM DPWH Sec. Sadain conducts ocular inspection of projects in Tawi-Tawi== | ||
*Source: http://www.zamboangatoday.ph/index.php/news/13-top-stories/9084-armm-dpwh-sec-sadain-conducts-ocular-inspection-of-projects-in-tawi-tawi.html | *Source: http://www.zamboangatoday.ph/index.php/news/13-top-stories/9084-armm-dpwh-sec-sadain-conducts-ocular-inspection-of-projects-in-tawi-tawi.html |