Misuari followers benefit from gov't development projects

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines - Followers of Nur Misuari in North Cotabato are satisfied with the continuing implementation since 2011 of the Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan (PAMANA) projects in their communities.

Junalyn Gayak-Sumlay, the former figurehead of the youth sector of the North East State Revolutionary Committee of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), said each of their communities had been awarded by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process with corn shelling machines, solar driers and harvest storage facilities.

Sumlay is one of about 2,000 loyal followers of Misuari now peacefully thriving in their farms in North Cotabato’s Midsayap, Aleosan, Libungan, Pikit, Kabacan and Matalam towns.

The government had already spent P132 million since 2011 for various socio-economic projects in MNLF communities in 22 barangays in North Cotabato.

Sumlay, chairperson of Magungaya, a local cause-oriented group, said one of the most tangible interventions by OPAPP for MNLF communities was the construction of a road traversing farming enclaves in Barangay Ulandang in Midsayap.

“The project has not just benefited former combatants of the MNLF, but other farming communities as well, Sumlay said.

Sumlay said even farmers who belong to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front have also been benefiting from PAMANA projects in Barangay Ulandang.

Followers of Misuari in Central Mindanao’s adjoining North Cotabato, Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat provinces were calmly confined in their enclaves during the three-week siege of Zamboanga City by Ustadz Habier Malik and his men.

OPAPP Secretary Teresita Quintos-Deles, who oversees PAMANA projects in the province along with mayors and North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza, said there are still many “development needs” in MNLF communities the government has to address. 

Deles said the government is doing its best to address the socio-economic concerns besetting MNLF communities in Central Mindanao to hasten the assimilation into the mainstream of former Moro rebels.