Farmers welcome conversion of Abubakar

Two years ago, 45-year-old farmer Camid Macapaar fled Camp Abubakar, which was then under a rain of bombs, shells and bullets from advancing military troops.

In a visit to the former Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) enclave last Tuesday, President Arroyo released P10 million in grants to help local residents, including Macapaar, start life anew.

Macapaar was among the first batch of farmers – many of them former MILF rebels – who returned to Abubakar.

"Our people are now thriving here peacefully as farmers, not as MILF combatants as they were before," Macapaar told The STAR in his Iranon dialect.

Abubakar – now known as Camp Duma Sinsuat (not Datu Sinsuat as earlier reported) – is now the new headquarters of the Philippine Army’s 603rd Infantry Brigade.

The camp’s new name is in honor of the late Duma Sinsuat, a Cabinet member of the late former President Diosdado Macapagal, Mrs. Arroyo’s father. The Sinsuats belong to an influential Muslim clan in Maguindanao province.

Muslim farming communities around the former MILF base welcome the permanent military presence, saying it would greatly improve the local business climate and foster development.

In the past, a climate of fear forced residents to shell out money to pay so-called "revolutionary taxes" levied by the MILF.

Mrs. Arroyo said the military will help local farmers develop the 2,000 hectares of arable land and turn the former rebel stronghold into a local agricultural hub.

Last week officials of Matanog, the gateway to the former rebel camp, declared the area a "zone of peace" as a closure to their town’s violent history.

The towns of Matanog, Barira and Buldon, which surround the former Camp Abubakar, saw heavy fighting when government troops captured the base in a massive offensive ordered by then President Joseph Estrada in 2000.

The P10 million, part of a government program to rehabilitate former MILF rebels funded by the US Agency for International Aid (USAID), will also be used to build the infrastructure necessary for development.

During Mrs. Arroyo’s visit, local officials asked her for more public elementary and high schools built for their children and health centers put up to provide sufficient care.

Schools can help their children become responsible citizens, they said. Some farmers said their children might someday even join the military and help in keeping the peace in their communities.

During her visit Tuesday, Mrs. Arroyo said she ordered the 603rd to move to Abubakar to prove that her administration has no plans of returning Abubakar or any rebel camp to the MILF captured by the military in the 2000 offensive.

Suspicions that the MILF would get back its bases surfaced after the Arroyo administration recently concluded a series of interim peace agreements with the rebels.

Mrs. Arroyo assured critics that any peace deal forged with the MILF would be governed by the law and would always be "under the sovereignty of the Philippines."– With Marichu Villanueva