Jolo declared a ‘peace zone’

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao — The country’s seemingly most hostile town is now a "peace zone," thanks to its leaders, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), the military and its warring political clans who have decided to forge peace.

Gov. Parouk Hussin of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao said the declaration of Jolo, capital town of Sulu, as a "peace zone" augurs well for the peaceful conduct of the May 10 elections there and in surrounding municipalities.

Jolo first hogged the headlines when a fire virtually destroyed its commercial and residential districts, precipitated by four days of fighting in the streets between MNLF rebels and government security forces.

"Our objective here is for our town to continue to be a peace zone from the day it was declared as such and for as long as we can keep it that way, not just during the election period," said re-electionist Jolo Mayor Hadji Suod Tan.

Tan said the United Nations Multi-Donor Program (UNMDP), various humanitarian organizations, the regional and municipal peace and order councils and the ARMM’s Department of the Interior and Local Government jointly worked on the declaration.

In a press statement, Winston Aylmer Camariñas, coordinator of UNMDP’s Phase 3 program, said the initiative’s primary goal is to ban off-duty soldiers, policemen and other security forces from roaming around Jolo carrying their firearms.

Since the 1990s, the UNMDP has been implementing various socio-economic programs in Sulu and other parts of Mindanao to complement the Sept. 2, 1996 peace agreement between the government and the MNLF.

Lt. Gen. Roy Kyamko, chief of the Armed Forces’ Southern Command, said Army, Marine and Navy units in Sulu have been ordered to cooperate in establishing Jolo into a viable "peace zone."

"This endeavor is something we in the military ought to support. It is the military and the police that would first detest violence and lawlessness in any part of the country," Kyamko said.

The UNMDP said local peace advocates and MNLF members would play a key role in putting the mechanisms for the "peace zone" in place.

Sulu, a component province of the ARMM, is known for the feudal attitude of its political leaders, who stockpile military-type weapons which they use in perpetuating their power.

The island-province is also a hotbed of religious fundamentalism. It is where the notorious Abu Sayyaf has been maintaining hinterland lairs.

Since 2002, Hussin has brokered the peaceful settlement of 16 bloody clan wars in Sulu, most of them said to have stemmed from politics.