Mangudadatu leads new group supporting CAB

MAGUINDANAO - Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Quintos-Deles on Sunday inducted in Buluan town the officials of the newly-organized Alliance for Just Peace and Development (AJPD), which aims to engage in community programs in support of the Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro (CAB).

The induction rite --- one of the highlights in Sunday’s provincial “kanduli,” a traditional Moro prayer gathering and banquet, to celebrate the March 27, 2014 signing of the CAB -- was witnessed by senior officials of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, led by its chief negotiator Muhaquer Iqbal, and vice chairman for political affairs Ghadzali Jaafar.

Deles inducted Dammang Bantala, the incumbent president of the Cotabato City City State Polytechnic College, and several representatives from the state-run University of Southern Mindanao in North Cotabato, and government colleges in Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

The AJPD’s elected president, Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu, and vice president Estrella Abid-Babano, retired director of the Department of Education for Region 12, explained to Deles and MILF officials that their objective, as a non-partisan organization, is to embark on activities meant to educate the Moro public on the importance of the CAB.

“We support the peace process. We want the CAB to succeed and so we shall help in its implementation in whatever way we can,” Babano said.

Babano said Mangudadatu helped register the alliance to the Securities and Exchange Commission as a non-partisan, non-stock, non-profit, multi-sectoral peace advocacy organization.

Mangudadatu said the membership of the newly-formed SEC-registered peace alliance is open to all Mindanao residents, regardless of religious and cultural identities.

“Even people outside of Mindanao [who] wants to help foster lasting peace and development in the Bangsamoro homeland are welcome to join us,” Mangudadatu said.

Mangudadatu said that the alliance's peace-building activities will be closely coordinated with the MILF, the government’s peace panel, the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, the Armed Forces and the Philippine National Police.

The governor said they have asked many members of the academe to join the alliance to maximize the dissemination of the intricacies and ramifications of the CAB, and the importance of the peace overture between the government and the MILF.

Maguindanao province is a known bastion of the MILF, which has government-recognized camps scattered in all of its 36 towns.

The MILF’s founder, the late Imam Salamat Hashim, who studied Islamic theology at the secular Al-Azzhar University in Egypt, is an ethnic Maguindanao born in Cudal area that what is now Pagalungan town in the second district of Maguindanao.

The Kampilan Press Corps, a group of journalists covering the humanitarian and civil-relations thrusts of the Army’s 6th Infantry “Kampilan” Division, immediately pledged support for the peace-building activities of the alliance and the 6th ID after the induction of the AJPD’s first ever set of elected officials.

Mangudadatu had earlier approved a resolution by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan, chaired by Vice Gov. Lester Sinsuat, commending the government and MILF’s peace panel, the Malaysian government, the OPAPP, and President Benigno Aquino III for the signing of the CAB last March 27 in Malacañang.

It took 17 years for the government and the MILF to strike a peace deal via a tedious negotiation that started Jan. 7, 1997, and collapsed repeatedly due to so many thorny issues both sides failed to resolve on the negotiating table at first, and the conflicts that rocked flashpoint areas while talks were underway.

“We are very grateful to our presiding officer, Vice. Gov. Sinsuat for having been supportive too of the peace process just like our provincial governor,” said Board Member Bobby Katambak, the main proponent of the resolution.

Katambak said the provincial board is also thankful to the Malaysian government for facilitating since 2003 the GPH-MILF peace initiative.

The provincial “kanduli” for the signing of the CAB, which Deles attended, was also graced by local executives, representatives of various peace advocacy organizations, and police and military officials led by Brig. Gen. Romeo Gan, assistant division commander of 6th ID.