Thousands more join BARMM's regional SIAP political bloc

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The vice mayor here, a pioneer member of the political party of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, on Saturday joined, along with thousands, another bloc most known for its cross-section peacebuilding programs and socio-economic thrusts.

Cotabato City Vice Mayor Johari Abu, whose patriarch was former senior MILF official Salih Abu, alias Gadzali Jaafar, was the vice mayoral bet of the MILF’s United Bangsamoro Justice Party during the 2022 elections here.

Besides Abu, the lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo, an erstwhile Bangsamoro local government minister, and community leaders led by Bimbo Ayunan, chairman of the vote-rich Barangay Mother Kalanganan here, were also sworn in as members of the Serbisyong Inklusibo Alyansang Progresibo, or SIAP, by its chairman, Lanao del Sur Vice Gov. Mohammad Khalid Rakiin Adiong, during a gathering here on Saturday morning.

Abu and Sinarimbo separately told reporters after Saturday's event that they joined SIAP owing to its objectives to foster lasting peace and sustainable development in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and empower the local Muslim, Christian and indigenous non-Moro communities via socio-economic initiatives that are partly focused on enticing business capitalists from outside and potential foreign benefactors to put up viable capital-intensive businesses in far-flung areas.

Sinarimbo had served as legal adviser of the MILF leadership and was partly instrumental in securing the exoneration of front leaders from criminal cases in connection with a deadly bomb attack in Davao City during the time of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

“I’m glad that the membership of the SIAP is expanding. The leadership of this party shall do its best for the party to live up to the expectations of its members and supporters,” Adiong said.

Reports by local stations on Saturday, amid SIAP's activity at a public gymnasium in  Barangay Kalanganan 2 in southwest of this city, stated that no fewer than 11,000 people from across this city and nearby towns in Maguindanao del Norte, pledged support for the party, founded in Lanao del Sur more than a decade ago.

No fewer than 2,000 community leaders and traditional Moro elders joined SIAP during a gathering last week in the town proper of the nearby Datu Odin Sinsuat in Maguindanao del Norte, hosted by members of the Sinsuat clan in the municipality.

Adiong said SIAP is not hostile with the MILF’s UBJP and is even keen on helping push forward Malacañang’s peace process with Moro sectors as part of the front’s peace deal with the national government.