ARMM celebrates first anniversary of peaceful elections

SHARIFF AGUAK, Maguindanao — It is exactly one year ago today when the 15-year-old Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao had its first-ever peaceful regional elections, the impact of which is now being felt by ARMM residents.

Although it was the ARMM’s fifth election since its creation in 1990, last year’s regional polls was the most peaceful compared to previous electoral exercises, which were so bloody and only heightened factions among feuding regional leaders.

Regional planners said the fifth regional elections, which catapulted to power two young politicians — ARMM Gov. Datu Zaldy Ampatuan, 38, and Vice Gov. Ansarudin Adiong, 36 — did not just politically unite all of the 102 mayors and five provincial governors in the region but ushered in dramatic changes in the region’s socio-economic climate.

Lawyer Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi, the region’s solicitor-general, said they have cleansed the payrolls of the regional education department of hundreds of "ghost teachers," in a sweeping manner never before seen in the history of ARMM during the past months.

Ampatuan and his trade secretary, Ishak Mastura, managed to rebuild last June the almost forgotten trade linkages between China and Maguindanao after more than a century of lull in trading.

"The impression of our contacts abroad is that there is political maturity now among ARMM’s voting residents, as shown by the peaceful elections last year," Mastura said.

Oscar Sampulna, the ARMM’s executive secretary, said peaceful regional elections last year fostered a strong political bond among the region’s politically diverse leaders.

"The elections last year opened the eyes of feuding leaders to the reality that if they remain united, it would be easier to convince Malacañang and foreign donors to put up more socio-economic projects in the region," Sampulna said.

Among those that came in to help improve governance in the ARMM after last year’s peaceful regional elections was the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Germany, which funds the Institute for Autonomy and Governance, a non-government organization that provides special training on public administration for regional officials.

The German donor is keen on helping "re-package" the ARMM into an "institute of democracy" and as a vehicle for lasting peace in the autonomous region, which covers Marawi City, Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, both in Central Mindanao and the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

Ampatuan and members of the Regional Economic and Development Planning Board, which he chairs, approved during a meeting in Davao City last July 31 the region’s outline of strategic regional infrastructure (SIR) projects, the related regional medium-term public investment program and the regional development investment program for 2007 to 2010.

Adel Dumagay, executive director of the Regional Planning and Development Office, said they are taking advantage of the political solidarity now of local executives in all parts of the region to chart a new growth path for the local economy.

"Instead of bickering with each other, our leaders are now keen on showing to people in Luzon and Visayas and the international donor community that there is unity among them now and that they can have a common vision of peace and sustainable development," Dumagay said.

Surprisingly present in the meeting of the ARMM planning board in Davao City was Basilan Gov. Wahab Akbar, who, despite his being a "voting member" of the group, disregarded his role in the planning body during the past administration.

As of last June, all of the 102 mayors in the ARMM have reaffirmed, during separate sessions in the past 11 months, their membership to Lakas-CMD, with a promise to help work for a peaceful local elections in 2007.

"We have intensified our loyalty to the administration party because we have seen in the past months the benefits of being solid and cooperative with the economic thrusts of the ARMM administration," Mayor Wahid Sahidullah of Tongkil, Sulu, said in Filipino.