Maguindanao town to celebrate 58th founding anniversary

COTABATO CITY, Philippines --- Residents of Maguindanao’s hinterland Upi town --- famed for peaceful co-existence amid diverse ethnicity - will celebrate on June 10, 2013 its 58th founding anniversary, which will highlight  the peaceful co-existence  among local folks for almost six decades now.

The re-elected municipal mayor of Upi, Ramon Piang, a Teduray chieftain, is a member of the government panel negotiating with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. He ran unopposed for the town’s mayoral post during the May 13 elections.

Upi, located at the southeast of Maguindanao, is home to to a community composed  of Teduray, Moro, and Christian settlers.

The area’s ethnic Teduray communities belong to Mindanao’s non-Muslim indigenous people, or IP, whose ancestral domains are spread throughout Upi and South Upi, also in Maguindanao, and parts of the coastal towns of Lebak, Kalamansig and Palimbang, in Sultan Kudarat province.

The hinterland town, which is 38 kilometers from Cotabato City via concreted highway passing through rugged, mountainous terrains, is the top corn producer of Maguindanao.

Piang served as vice mayor of Upi for  three consecutive terms, prior to his stint as undefeated mayor from 2001 to 2010.

Local folks said peace is maintained in the area owing to the  municipal government’s resolution of domestic security issues through dialogues among Moro, Teduray and Christian elders.

Upi is host to the state-run Upi Agricultural School, where Maguindanao Governor Esmael Mangudadatu’s office has more than 400 scholars.

Mangudadatu said the provincial government is now focused on helping the office of Piang convince local farmers to shift into propagation of rubber trees and African oil palms for better income and to turn the  municipality to become Maguindanao’s “rubber and oil palm hub.”

“We have no problem implementing costly projects in Upi because the traditional elders, religious and elected leaders there are in control. They can efficiently maintain law and order alongside the police and the military,” Mangudadatu said.

Upi has been a recipient of  a heavy equipment grant from the Japan International Cooperation Agency, which they use in maintaining farm-to-market roads connecting farming enclaves to the town proper.

The town also has a “peace radio,” dxUP, which was established by a foreign donor as a broadcast facet for programs meant to foster peace among Muslims and non-Muslims in the area.

Alih Anso, who is overseeing the operations of dxUP is an ethnic Iranon Muslim.

Originally only a barrio under older Dinaig municipality, now named Datu Odin Sinsuat, the now 58 year-old Upi,  which has 32 barangays, was created a municipality by virtue of Republic Act 1248 on June 10, 1955.