Maguindanao leaders hold security workshop

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - Local executives and the military on Tuesday jointly drafted a peace blueprint empowering elected officials to spearhead the resolution of issues through 'convergence approach' of governance and domestic security issues.

The first ever security workshop of Maguindanao mayors and commanding officers of  different Army units in Central Mindanao dubbed 'Kadtatabanga Para Sa Maguindanao,' was held at Camp Siongco in Datu Odin in Sinsuat.

Kadtatabanga in the Maguindanaon dialect means cooperation of communities to achieve a humanitarian objective.

Major Gen. Romeo Gapuz, commander of 6th ID, said the goal of the Kadtatabanga workshop was to enable local officials to draft their municipal peace and development contingencies parallel with their powers under the Local Government Code.

The activity was also meant to let participants realize and appreciate their powers, as elected officials, in addressing domestic security concerns with the military and police just behind them.

Gapuz said the day-long workshop, which Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu helped organize, was also a venue for mayors to learn how to effectively harness the barangay governments in addressing security problems through convergence approach and diplomacy.

Mangudadatu has been advocating, since he was first elected to office in 2010, for 'governance by convergence,' or the joint implementation by local government units, Muslim and Christian community leaders, the police and the military, of programs designed to strengthen security and foster progress in Maguindanao's 36 municipalities.

Gapuz said workshop participants had also talked about the socio-economic and political peculiarities of their respective municipalities and strategies on how to build peace through Moro traditional and religious peace-building practices.

Mangudadatu, whose office helped bankroll the workshop, said he and Gapuz are ready to cooperate in initiating “follow-up activities” to complement Tuesday’s first provincial Kadtatabanga peace and development workshop.

The mayors also discussed during the workshop possible projects they can pursue in support of Malacañang’s peace overtures with Moro communities.