Maguindanao celebrates June 12 with tree planting in massacre site

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - Moro communities on Thursday celebrated the 116th Philippine Independence Day by planting thousands of forest and bamboo trees around the site of the “Maguindanao Massacre” and other areas in the province.

Representatives of the police and the military, and local executives, led by Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu spearheaded the planting of bamboo trees in Sitio Salman in Masalay District in Ampatuan town, where 58 people were killed by partisans on Nov. 23, 2009, in the country’s worst election-related violence ever.   

Mangudadatu and Col. Noli Orense, commanding officer of the Army’s 603rd Brigade, separately told reporters that they decided to plant bamboo seedlings at  the massacre site both as joint celebration for the birth of the Philippines as a nation, and to commemorate the “political democracy” ushered in by the bloody incident.

The Maguindanao Massacre, which left 58 people dead, among them Mangudadatu’s wife, Genalyn, and 32 journalists, resulted to the fall of the Ampatuan clan, which ruled the province with absolute intolerance for political opposition.

The bamboo seedlings planted around the massacre memorial site were supplied by Col. Allan Arojado of the Army’s 602nd Brigade, which has an extensive advocacy for planting of bamboos along river banks and hinterlands.

“Bamboos, just the like the coconut trees, are also `trees of life’ because it retains big volume of water in its roots and are good materials for constructing houses. Its young shoots can also be harvested for food,” Mangudadatu said.

Employees of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, led by Regional Executive Secretary Laisa Alamia and Kahal Kedtag, secretary of the ARMM’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), also planted thousands of forest tree seedlings in Barangay Macasandag in Parang town in the first district of Maguindanao.

The group planted Narra, Mahogany and Antipolo seedlings at hillsides along stretches of the Secretary Narciso Ramos Highway in Barangay Macasandag.

Alamia said their tree planting activity was two-pronged  --- as part of their commemoration of the 116th Independence Day, and in support of the DENR-ARMM's effort to plant 10 million trees before the regional government is replaced in 2016 with a new Bangsamoro political entity based on the final peace deal between Malacañang and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Kedtag’s office already facilitated the planting of more than two million forest tree seedlings in a continuing “greening program” launched early this year.