2 Lamitan villages now ‘peace zones’

COTABATO CITY – There are two barangays in Lamitan City that are now “peace zones” and protected jointly by local Muslim and Christian residents from intruders to ensure the area’s economic growth through foreign-funded development packages.

Lamitan Mayor Roderick Furigay said Muslims and Christians in the adjoining Barangays Tumakid and Tandung Ahas, both coastal communities, have never been so close to each other until the World Bank and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) gave them a water system, a health center, a school building and a multi-purpose hall where they can hold peace dialogues.

The two barangays are coastal communities whose residents were vulnerable to attacks by pirates and secessionist rebels in the past due to lack of solidarity among them in protecting their villages.

Furigay said it was of the bayanihan spirit of implementing the foreign-funded projects in their communities by the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Social Fund Project (ASFP) that his constituents in the two barangays have realized the importance of having a common peace and development blueprint for their villages. – John Unson