4 Cotabato areas declared as 'peace zones'

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines — The municipal council of Tulunan town approved on Tuesday an ordinance declaring four areas in the municipality as "peace zones" that are off limits to combatants.

The new peace zones—Bituan, Nabundasan, Miatub and New Alimodian—have seen deadly encounters between communist rebels and state forces in the past years.

The Notre Dame Broadcasting Corporation, which operates radio stations in the cities of Kidapawan and Cotabato, on Wednesday cited Max Casulakan, coordinator of the municipal peace zones and development council, saying that the ordinance will prevent the intrusion of armed groups into what are now tagged as demilitarized agricultural enclaves in Tulunan.

The four villages, scattered at the border of Tulunan's neighboring Barangays Tuburan and Banayal, were first named peace zones in 1990 via a resolution by stakeholders to a domestic peace process.

The peace efforts were initiated as a community venture to stave off encounters between government security forces and the New People’s Army that repeatedly caused the displacement of innocent residents.

Tulunan Mayor Lani Candolada, chair of the inter-agency, multi-sectoral municipal peace and order council, said her office will support extensively the enforcement of the ordinance.

Tulunan is near the boundary of North Cotabato and Davao del Sur, where NPA rebels have been operating with impunity, enforcing a kangaroo justice system and levying revolutionary taxes and "protection money" from hapless peasant communities.

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In a statement Wednesday, North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza said she was elated with the efforts of local officials and community leaders in Tulunan to restore normalcy in the four peace zones through diplomatic interventions.

Mendoza, presiding chair of the provincial peace and order council, said she is optimistic the ordinance will foster tranquility in the Tulunan, whose residents rely mainly on rice and corn farming as main sources of income.