ARMM execs want health issues tackled in peace accord’s review
COTABATO CITY – Local officials have asked the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) to include “health” among the five parameters for the tripartite review of the Sept. 2, 1996 peace pact between the government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).
The ongoing tripartite review of the peace pact, which started last November in
The government and the MNLF have agreed to focus on five areas – education, Sharia, political representation of Moro communities, regional security force, economic development, and natural resources – as basis for the review of the peace agreement.
Dr. Hadji Tahir Sulaik, health secretary of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), said there is an immediate need for all sectors involved in the
Citing records of his office, Sulaik said only 300 of the region’s 2,504 barangays have health stations that attend to the needs of impoverished Muslim communities.
Of the 113 towns in the autonomous region, only 78 have rural health units, he added.
Maternal mortality in the region has also been considerably high, with a ratio of 132 deaths for every 100,000 population.
“All of these concerns were merely inherited by our present regional governor, Datu Zaldy Ampatuan, who, since his assumption into office in September 2005, has been doing his best, with the help of Malacañang, address all of these concerns,” Sulaik said.
Sulaik, himself a Moro physician who started as a “doctor to the barrio” after he finished his medical degree, said there is a need to include health as a major component of the
ARMM’s planning director Adel Dumagay, whose office is involved in the ongoing tripartite review of the 1996 peace accord, said it is still possible for the government and the MNLF to discuss the overall health scenario in their next meetings.
Representing the ARMM in the tripartite review are Ampatuan and Speaker Paisalin Tago of the 24-seat Regional Assembly.
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