Youths train as government peace ambassadors

President Arroyo formally commissioned yesterday the first batch of 2,000 Muslim youths who will be trained as "Sala-am Peace Corps" workers to help implement the government’s community development projects in Mindanao.

The President welcomed in Marawi City the enlisted Muslim out-of-school youths who will undergo on-the-job training under the government’s emergency employment project in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

The Muslim youths will be assigned to various functions such as police aides, nursing aides and other key activities in their respective communities.

"This aims to train our (Muslim) youths to become Sala-am Peace Corps who would help in community work and earn (a) subsistence allowance instead of being recruited (by Muslim rebel groups) to join the armed conflict," Mrs. Arroyo said.

She noted that the 2,000 Muslim youths, half of them from Lanao del Sur and the other half from Maguindanao, will be given an allowance of P1,000 a month over the next three months to a year.

The next batch of Sala-am Peace Corps workers will come from the three other ARMM provinces — Basilan, Tawi-tawi and Sulu.

The President said the government has allocated P5.5 billion for the Sala-am Peace Corps under the Mindanao National Initiative (Mindanao Natin) program.

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said the deployment of the Peace Corps will be the backbone of the Mindanao Natin program, which may also tap official development assistance (ODA) funds, amounting to $1.3 billion, for development projects in the ARMM and Regions 9 and 12.

"This is a ‘special army group,’ whose composition is mostly Muslim, which we call ‘Sala-am.’ This ‘Sala-am" will be at the vanguard of peace and order and pushing the socio-economic development in Mindanao," he said.

Bunye noted that this "special group of Muslim soldiers" were chosen and trained not to do armed battle, but to win the hearts and minds of their brother Muslims on the way of peace as the means to prosperity in Mindanao.

The President and her Cabinet approved the final plans for the Sala-am Peace Corps during their meeting in Davao City, which was the first leg of her week-long Mindanao trip.

She said that many of the trade concessions she obtained during her state visits to the United States and South Korea, as well as her working visit to Japan, would benefit Mindanao residents.

"A considerable portion of new public and private investments we mobilized will create more livelihood and employment opportunities for the people of Mindanao," Mrs. Arroyo said.

"Much of the grants and ODAs we obtained will be targeted and focused on providing unmet needs of Mindanao’s poorest and most vulnerable."

She also said the bulk of military and law enforcement assistance she secured from abroad will be allocated to Mindanao "to provide better security and protection" for far-flung communities.