COTABATO CITY — The chairperson of the multi-sector Regional Peace and Order Council 12 and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) will embark on more peacebuilding programs.
A member of the Bangsamoro parliament, Mohammad Kelly U. Antao, told reporters on Thursday that Cotabato Gov. Emmylou T. Mendoza, MILF Chairman Ahod B. Ebrahim, and Education Minister Muhaquer M. Iqbal, had reached a consensus to continue cooperating in peace and security programs in enclaves of the front that are now recognized as “peace zones” by the police and the military.
There are 63 barangays in Cotabato province, grouped together as the Special Geographic Area (SGA), under the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), after local residents voted for the inclusion of their barangays into the autonomous region’s core territory during a referendum in 2019.
Cotabato province, which has 17 towns and covers more than 40 barangays in its capital, Kidapawan City, is a predominantly Christian area. It also has a big population of non-Moro indigenous people.
Accompanied by Mr. Antao, Ms. Mendoza, who is chairperson of the RDC-12 visited last Wednesday, Camp Darapanan, the MILF’s bastion in Sultan Kudarat town in Maguindanao del Norte, where she discussed with Mr. Murad and Mr. Iqbal the gains, achieved in recent years, of the joint peace and development efforts of their provincial government and local commanders of the front.
Mr. Iqbal is a senior member of the MILF’s central committee and functions as BARMM education minister and member of the 80-seat parliament in concurrent capacities.
“The meeting was cordial and there were strong commitments from each of them to continue helping each other foster peace and sustainable development in Moro-dominated areas in Cotabato province where far-flung barangays became scenes of bloody encounters between MILF guerrillas and the military in past decades,” Mr. Antao said.
Mr. Antao, Mr. Ebrahim and Mr. Iqbal had separately told reporters after their meeting in Camp Darapanan that the provincial government of Cotabato had not stopped extending humanitarian support to residents of the 63 SGA barangays in the province, despite being no longer under Ms. Mendoza’s jurisdiction. — John Felix M. Unson