MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - A German-assisted agency and the provincial government of Maguindanao agreed on Friday to jointly promote political stability in the province in support of the Bangsamoro peace initiative.
Lawyer Benedicto Bacani, executive director of the Institute for Autonomy and Governance (IAG) and Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu sealed with a tight handshake a deal to help each other implement in Maguindanao the project, titled “Promoting Political Climate and Stability for Peace in the Bangsamoro.”
Launched last February 1, the new peace-advocacy venture, also covering other areas in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, is bankrolled by the Australian government.
The IAG, a known political think tank, is an institutional partner of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung of Germany, a benefactor of various programs complementing the Mindanao peace process.
The IAG’s Australian-funded political intervention for peace and stability in the Bangsamoro area is supported by three other peace-advocacy organizations, the Philippine Center for Islam and Democracy (PCID), the Local Government Development Foundation and the Zamboanga-Basilan Integrated Development Alliance.
The main goal of the project is to enlist the active participation of local government units and political leaders in a continuing debate on concepts of viable autonomy and efficient governance in a broader, inclusive Mindanao peace perspective.
“This will be a strictly non-partisan engagement among political leaders and the organizations pushing the project forward,” Bacani told Mangudadatu in a meeting at the governor’s office in Buluan town in Maguindanao last Friday.
Bacani said the project aims to facilitate discussions on the intricacies of the Local Government Code as a capacity-building initiative meant to improve the leadership proficiency of political leaders in the Bangsamoro area.
Also present in the meeting of Bacani and Mangudadatu were lawyer Salma Rasul and Bandrazel Birowa, representing the PCID and the Zabida, respectively, political analyst Edmund Tayao, and IAG’s Reydan Lacson.
Mangudadatu said the provincial government will participate actively in the implementation of the project in the province, which has 36 towns, all known bastions of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
“My office and all of its constituent-municipal governments will not hesitate to support anything good for the people of Maguindanao in the same way we support wholeheartedly all undertakings that can bolster the Mindanao peace process,” Mangudadatu said.
Bacani said among the objectives of the project is to facilitate discussions, among members of the inter-agency Maguindanao provincial peace and order council, the ramifications and relevance of normalization processes benefiting Moro communities.
The project also aims to facilitate roundtable dialogues among stakeholders on vital issues such as the peace process, governance and other domestic socio-political and security issues.
Mangudadatu said the provincial government has actively been involved in local normalization thrusts since he was first elected to office in 2010. The governor was re-elected to a second term during the 2013 local elections.
Mangudadatu said one of his several on-going “pro-people projects” involving the Moro, Christian and lumad sectors in the province, meant to hasten the restoration of normalcy in conflict-wracked areas, is the Maguindanao Program for Educational Assistance and Community Empowerment (MagPEACE).
Mangudadatu said the MagPEACE pays for the schooling of more than 4,000 college students, mostly children of poor peasants and members of the MILF and the Moro National Liberation Front.
“I know we also have some scholars who are either children, or relatives of members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters. We don’t discriminate in allowing qualified students to avail of MagPEACE support. If these children will become professionals, they will certainly become peace advocates too,” he said.