BARMM rehab center opens in Maguindanao

REFORMATION --- PDEA-BARMM Deputy Director Marlon Santos speaks during the opening of Balay Silangan Reformation and Treatment Center for Drug Law Offenders in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao last March 22. (Photo by PDEA-BARMM)

COTABATO CITY --- The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and local officials in the Maguindanao town of Sultan Kudarat opened last March 22 the Balay Silangan Reformation and Treatment Center for Drug Law Offenders that will serve the entire Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

Mayor Shameem Mastura of Sultan Kudarat and PDEA-BARMM Deputy Regional Director Marlon Santos led the formal opening of the facility.

Santos said programs in the “Balay Silangan” will be implemented in three phases that include the explanation and dissemination of Republic Act 9165 (Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002) and other related laws to former drug personalities.

The second phase includes the development of personal and life skills of the “reformists,” while the third and final stage focuses on livelihood programs to prepare former drug dependents in their return to the mainstream society.

Sultan Kudarat has recorded 951 drug surrenderers during the implementation of the police “Oplan Tokhang” (knock-appeal) for the past two years.

Santos said of the 951 former drug personalities, 30 will take the “first step” in the life-changing process into becoming productive, self-sufficient, and law abiding citizens.

“The reformatory process is the government’s post-anti-drug operation program to give chance to drug personalities take once more the right path to life,” he said in an interview last March 23.

Santos said the reformation center will provide various livelihood training skills that include electrical wiring, welding, food production/processing, driving, and machinery operating programs, among others.

The program is also integrated with values formation and social norms that will prepare them for their reintegration to the society. (Edwin Fernandez, PNA - Cotabato)

Army leads poll peace covenant signing in Maguindanao town

COVENANT --- Candidates for local positions in Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Maguindanao, took oath last March 22  for a peaceful polling in connection with the May 2019 elections. (Photo by 6th ID)

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao  --- Military and local officials look forward to a peaceful and orderly local election in the Maguindanao town of Datu Saudi Ampatuan after candidates signed a peace covenant last March 22.

The candidates -- from mayoral down to municipal council hopefuls -- trooped to the municipal covered court to express their willingness to participate in the peace covenant signing event.

Datu Saudi Ampatuan, a town known for its Pink Mosque, has gained notoriety over the years for election-related fraud and violence.

The initiative was facilitated by the Army’s 1st Mechanized Infantry Brigade (MIB), the 57th Infantry Battalion, the Commission on Elections, and the local Interior and Local Government Office.

“We were elated at the commitment shown by six mayoralty candidates, thre  e vice mayoral aspirants, and 36 town councilor hopefuls ‘rubbing elbows’ with one another during the covenant signing,” Maj. Jocelyn Mangadlao, 1st MIB executive officer, said in a statement.

Mangadlao said candidates showed their commitment in the presence of town Election Officer Rohaida Khalid, Local Government Operations Officer Bai Anisa Abdulkarim, Maj. Mangadlao, 57th IB Executive Officer Maj. Mark Anthony Tornalejo, and Major Abdulbassit Kulod, chief of the Datu Saudi Ampatuan Police Station.

Also present were members of a local poll watchdog and other concerned citizens.

Mangadlao said the activity was conducted to encourage the local candidates to commit themselves to a peaceful and credible election and to invoke the intervention of the Almighty for an honest, orderly, and peaceful election 2019.

Maj.  Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, the Army’s 6th Infantry Division commander, lauded the initiatives of the 1st MIB and 57th IB to ensure peaceful balloting in its area of assignment. (Edwin Fernandez, PNA - Cotabato)

Editorial

Enter the BARMM era

Our region makes another political history when the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao makes its inaugural come March 29 after two date postponements, wanting that President Rodrigo Duterte is present during the rites when the BARMM parliament will also hold its first legislative session. We expect a huge attendance in the inauguration of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front-led regional government with Cotabato City and portions in North Cotabato now part of its geo-political territory. 

The BARMM is a continuity of regional governance, this time the political structure --- parliamentary democracy --- given wider powers and functions as well as endowments related to fiscal resources, revenue sharing and enactments, and management so to provide its populace with assuring social and economic services with block grants (for a period of time)  from the national government to sustain its operations. When the Moro National Liberation Front under Nur Misuari signed peace pact with the government, it was given the baton to lead the autonomous government under then Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao; now the MILF takes the headship, a concession in the peace process. Following the transition government, election will be held in 2022 and on with the Filipino Muslim sector as the majority population, thus far.

Following the ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law and creation of the BARMM, we are keen on the next move, that is the decommissioning of the MILF’s combatants and Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Force and their conversion into unarmed civilian status. When the decommissioning is completed, which the Office of the Presidential Assistance for the Peace Process is reportedly preparing, the combatants and its armed forces will be armed with economic tools for them to become productive an no longer belligerent. This scenario will give as an assurance of a peaceable autonomous region. Of course, we still assume that the MILF organization will continue to exist as such with the MNLF. What is of significance is a workable settlement of conflict following the rolling of the peace process.

A governance of service, sincerity, and efficiency  are what the people expect from the MILF-led BARMM, one that can propel the region to the framework of development with an offer of peace formula to other armed splintered groups, and one that can further reduce underdevelopment. It’s a challenge for the BARMM to open more avenues for the entry of economic investments so wider opportunities be given to stakeholders. There are already development (foreign) partners that signify their intent to invest in the BARMM’s geo-political sphere, even offering their technical assistance… indeed this is a good sign the region is moving under the new leadership.

Conflict derails development phase and it’s time to move on to compensate what have been lost during the era of turmoil. Some say that the BARMM is another political experiment… so is any new government for this matter. Remember, the only permanent in the midst is CHANGE… hopefully for the better and “much much” better. We are a witness to and part of CHANGE.