A peaceful coexistence

KABUNTALAN, Maguindanao – After living apart for years as an aftermath of former President Joseph Estrada’s "all out war policy" against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Christian and Muslim farmers have found a reason to coexist anew in this isolated town, bound together by the government’s hybrid rice program.

Muslim and Christian farmers in the adjoining barangays of Labio and Gayonga here held three days ago a rice harvest festival to dramatize the fact that their yields have increased two-fold and that a kind of peace, albeit fragile, now exists in this area where farmers once carried guns while plowing their fields.

At the festival, villagers took turns telling the new agriculture secretary of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Sajid Druz Ali, that the government’s hybrid rice program, a component of the Department of Agriculture’s Extension Techno-Demo Project, has not only improved their production, but also promoted working solidarity among them as well.

A 55-year-old farmer, Lagrimas Labio, said the hybrid rice they propagated with the help of the ARMM’s agriculture department, was more resistant to diseases.

Ustadz Daud Unos, a Muslim preacher who also owns a rice farm here, said many rebels are now pre-occupied with farming hybrid rice using seeds supplied by the government.

Due to nagging security problems and lack of knowledge in propagating high-yielding varieties of rice crops, ordinary farmers had been harvesting less than 10 tons of palay per hectare in past years.

Unos said that with the use of hybrid seeds many of them harvested twice the volume of their previous harvests.

"Because all of us are busy with our propagation of hybrid rice, Muslim and Christian residents are helping each other to maintain peace and order in our villages for the situation here to become very conducive to farming," said Fermo Labio, chairman of Barangay Labio.

Druz Ali, who took over as ARMM agriculture secretary only three weeks ago, said he and the region’s new governor, Zaldy Ampatuan, will make representations with Malacañang and concerned line agencies to expand the government’s hybrid rice program in other peace zones in Maguindanao.

Druz Ali said he will also encourage Ampatuan to bankroll other agriculture programs that can complement the "flourishing" hybrid rice program if foreign donors, including the Saudi Arabian government, will fulfill pledges of socio-economic support to the new ARMM leadership.

The ambassador of Saudi Arabia, Mohammad Ameen Wali, promised Ampatuan during a meeting in Makati City last week that he will help the newly-elected ARMM governor secure a P2.5-billion socioeconomic grant from the Saudi Development Fund.

Ampatuan quoted Wali as saying that the only requisite for the release of the P2.5 billion development package is a comprehensive program detailing how the ARMM government would spend it for socioeconomic ventures.

The ARMM covers Marawi City, Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, both in Central Mindanao, and the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi. It is home to some 2.8 Muslim residents, many of them relying mainly on farming as their source of income.