Gov't launches agri programs in MILF bailiwicks in Mindanao

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala and officials of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) on Friday launched various projects in Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao, both bastions of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Alcala also led the dispersal of farm equipment and livestock to Maguindanaon and Maranaw farmers to improve their productivity, in support of President Benigno Aquino III’s effort to empower Moro peasant groups in the proposed Bangsamoro core area.

Alcala, his counterpart in the ARMM, Regional Agriculture Secretary Makmod Mending, Jr. and the region’s chief executive, Mujiv Hataman, first toured Lanao del Sur and Marawi City, where they met with people from the agriculture sector, and local officials.

While in Marawi City, Alcala, Mending and Hataman jointly presided over the Agri-Pinoy Program forum attended by Maranaw farmers, fisherfolks and local executives led by Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong, Jr.

The forum was capped off with Alcala’s awarding of a farm tractor to Lanao del Sur’s Bumbaran town, a known MILF stronghold. The 4x4 tractor is intended for large-scale communal farming projects of the Bumbaran municipal government and local farmers, many of them are members of the MILF, that are being implemented by the Adiong administration and the office of Mending.

Alcala and ARMM officials also handed out transportable corn mills, cattle, goats, chicken, and ducks for breeding purposes, to farmers’ cooperatives in Lanao del Sur ---   the Parao farmers cooperative, in Kapai town, to a group of former Moro National Liberation Front guerrillas in the same town, and the Sarimanok and Abduljalil cooperatives in Marawi City.

Alcala and Mending also distributed 130 bags of organic fertilizers to Moro and Christian farmers’ organizations in Lanao del Sur’s mainly agricultural Wao, Saguiran, and Pantar municipalities.

Ten cooperatives in the province received a water buffalo each from Alcala and Mending too.

Mending said they have also facilitated the release to different groups of 50 knapsack chemical sprayers.

The ARMM’s agriculture department has actively been implementing various projects for Moro farmers since Hataman assumed as appointed caretaker of the autonomous region in December 2011. Hataman was elected regional governor of the region on May 13, 2013.

Seven local government units in Lanao del Sur also received fiscal grants for local agricultural projects.

From Lanao del Sur, Alcala proceeded to Parang town in the first district of Maguindanao, along with Mending and Hataman, to launch similar projects and to release farm equipment and livestock to ethnic Maguindanaon farmers.