BARMM executive assures UNICEF ambassador of support

FULL SUPPORT --- BARMM Acting Executive Secretary Abdullah Cusain (2nd right) and BARMM Minister for Indigenous Peoples Affair Melanio Ulama (center)) hand over a memento to singer-actor Gary Valenciano as UNICEF chief of field office Andrew Morris and Valenciano’s wife, Angeli, look on. The BARMM officials assured the UNICEF representatives that they will support all UNICEF programs in the region following Valenciano’s visit to Upi, Maguindanao last September 26. (PHOTO COURTESY OF BPI-BARMM / MINDANAO EXPOSE’)

COTABATO CITY  ---  An official of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM)   assured last September 27 the United Children’s Fund (UNICEF) national ambassador Gary Valenciano that the region is supporting all UNICEF programs.

Abdullah Cusain, BARMM acting executive secretary, made the pronouncement after Valenciano, known in showbiz as Mr. Pure Energy, visited the mountain town of North Upi, Maguindanao last September 26 to mingle with the indigenous people (IP) in the area, especially the children.

Before his visit to North Upi, Valenciano paid a courtesy call to the BARMM Office of the Chief Minister here with Cusain and Minister Melanio Ulama of the region’s IP affairs ministry, accepting him.

Accompanying Valenciano here were his wife Angeli and Andrew Morris, the UNICEF chief of the field office, who also both went with the former to North Upi.

“BARMM supports all programs for the benefit of children, especially Moro children,” Cusain said in a statement.

Valenciano’s visit to the upland town forms part of UNICEF’s campaign to strengthen the promotion and protection of the rights of children in the Bangsamoro region.

"Among my advocacies is to make our country polio-free again and to make sure all will be vaccinated," Valenciano told reporters during his North Upi visit.

His visit was also part of the build-up for the observance of the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Children in the BARMM on November 20, 2019, which will be led by the region’s social services office. (EDWIN FERNANDEZ & NOEL PUNZALAN, PNA – COTABATO / MINDANAO EXPOSE’)

Army leads children’s tree planting activity

SOCIAL DUTY --- A girl and a soldier of the Army's 1st Mechanized Infantry Battalion plant a tree during the Army-led tree growing program in Barangay Kabengi, Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Maguindanao last September 28.  Other soldiers (inset) joined the village residents in their clean-up drive. (PHOTO COURTESY OF 1ST MIB / MINDANAO EXPOSE’)

CAMPO SIONGCO, Maguindanao  -- The Army’s 1st Mechanized Battalion (MIB)  spearheaded last September 29 a tree planting activity to help educate the children about the value of planting a tree for their future in Datu Saudi Ampatuan town of this province.

Dubbed as “Plant Trees, Plant Hope Program,” soldiers of the 1st MIB and the local government of Datu Saudi Ampatuan initiated the activity in the vicinity of Barangay Kabengi.

“This is in support of the national greening program of the government,” said Maj. Gen. Diosdado Carreon, Army’s 6th Infantry Division commander.

The 6th ID has operational jurisdiction over the 1st MIB, whose headquarters is stationed in nearby Ampatuan municipality of the same province.

A total of 400 non-fruit bearing trees were planted during the activity which was also participated in by police and the locals who voluntarily came after learning of the tree planting program.

The activity came a day after elements of 1st MIB, as part of the unit’s social responsibility, participated in the clean-up drive along the barangay road of Kabengi.

“It aims to keep the environment free of trash and help in the protection and preservation of surroundings,” Carreon said.

The Army’s 57th Infantry Battalion also participated in the three-hour activity.

Other participating partners included the local government unit of Datu Saudi Ampatuan; the Land Bank of the Philippines-General Santos City Accounting Center; the local chapter of the Youth for Peace Movement and elementary pupils. (EDWIN FERNANDEZ, PNA – COTABATO / MINDANAO EXPOSE’)

Mayor gives land to families affectedby road clearing

LAND RECIPIENTS --- Mayor Shameem Mastura (in red shirt) of Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao, speaks with the families affected by the ongoing road clearing operations. The mayor donated land for the displaced families and assured them that livelihood packages were also being prepared to support their daily needs.(PHOTO COURTESY OF SULTAN KUDARAT MIO / MINDANAO EXPOSE’)

 COTABATO CITY  ---  The mayor of Sultan Kudarat in Maguindanao province has donated a six-hectare land to some 600 families affected by the ongoing road clearing operation in his town.

Speaking to reporters here last September 25, Mayor Shameen Mastura said the donated lot parcels are located in his family-owned property in Barangays Simuay and Ladia.

“The affected families live on temporary shelters near the highway and inner roads and they have nowhere to go. And so our family decided that we give them a safer place to live (in),” Mastura said in the vernacular.

The mayor, who belongs to the political clan of the Masturas in the first district of the province, said the total land area would be subdivided into 65 square meter lots each for the 600 families.

He said a memorandum of agreement with the recipients ensures that the latter cannot sell their lots, but may pass on their property to their children.

He said livelihood packages, courtesy of the local government, were also being readied for the affected families to support their daily needs.

At least 11 of the 39 villages in the town have been affected by ongoing road clearing operations based on the nation-wide directive by the Department of the Interior and Local Government  Memorandum Circular 2019-121 to clear all public roads of obstructions, upon orders of President Rodrigo Duterte.

The DILG has set its deadline for the undertaking last September 29. (NOEL PUNZALAN, PNA – COTABATO / MINDANAO EXPOSE’)

Maguindanao town declared ‘BIFF-cleared’

 Mayor Zamzamin Ampatuan of Rajah Buayan, Maguindanao. (PHOTO COURTESY OF GILMAR LAO – COTABATO MEDIA GROUP/ MINDANAO EXPOSE’)

COTABATO CITY  ---  A town mayor in Maguindanao said last Septemebr 27 that his town is free from terror elements of the Islamic State-linked Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).

Mayor Zamzamin Ampatuan of Rajah Buayan, Maguindanao, asserted such during the Regional Peace and Order Council in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (RPOC-BARMM) meeting held at the BARMM compound here.

The mayor said that his constituents’ support to security sectors has made his town cleared from the BIFF.

“It was unprecedented, it never happened in the past,” Ampatuan said of the town's "all-out support" to military and police authorities.

Ampatuan said it was the people who voluntarily provided the police and military of the BIFF’s location and plot to disrupt the town’s peace and order.

“Credit should go to the people who also shun violent extremism,” he said. “Residents, mostly farmers, alert us, the police and the Army when they see BIFF roaming around their villages,” he told the security officials.

Ampatuan said the BIFF forces relocated to areas outside of the municipality after the incident and have not returned since.

Lt. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, chief of the Western Mindanao Command, who attended the meeting, lauded Ampatuan and his people for the determination to reject terrorism.

Sobejana urged other local officials in Maguindanao and other parts of the BARMM to emulate the cooperation being displayed by the Rajah Buayan people in "repulsing terrorists threatening to sow terror in their communities." (EDWIN FERNANDEZ, PNA – COTABATO / MINDANAO EXPOSE’)

BARMM chief assures employee compensation for defunct region

BARMM interim Chief Minister Ahod “Murad” Ebrahim

COTABATO CITY  ---  Some 6,000 employees who will be affected by the Bangsamoro transition plan will be justly compensated, the chief minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) assured last September 23.

BARMM interim Chief Minister Ahod “Murad” Ebrahim said the Bangsamoro government has continued to "carefully implement" the transition plan, particularly the "difficult part" of phasing out the employees of the now-defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

“As I have mentioned before, it’s our commitment to give and work out what is best for the affected employees within the ambit of the Bangsamoro Organic Law and the transition plan,” Ebrahim said in a statement.

The assurance was issued by Ebrahim after the affected employees raised their concerns during the regular session of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority last September 20.

100 ex-NPA members, supporters torch rebel flags

TORCHING REBEL FLAGS --- Former communist rebels and supporters set ablaze flags of the New People’s Army in Arakan, North Cotabato after they reaffirmed their support for the government last September 27. The newest batch of ex-rebels and NPA supporters, numbering to 120, pledged to reject any form of intrusions by the communist rebels to their communities. (PHOTO COURTESY OF 19TH IB/ MINDANAO EXPOSE’)

 COTABATO CITY  ---  Some 120 former members and supporters of the communist New People’s Army (NPA) torched last September 27 the flags of the rebel movement before military and local officials in Arakan town, North Cotabato.

Lt. Col. Benjamin Dao-on, Army’s 19th Infantry Battalion commander, said the former rebels also broke their loyalty to the movement by signing the “Panunumpa sa Pagsalikway sa CPP-NPA-NDF.”

The CPP stands for the Communist Party of the Philippines, with the NDF or National Democratic Front serving as an anterior political coalition with other left-leaning organizations in the country. The NPA is the communist rebel movement's armed wing.

The event, held at the Arakan gymnasium, was capped by a peace rally condemning the CPP-NPA-NDF and the burning of communist rebels’ flags.

Before Friday’s (September 27)  NPA flag-torching event, the town government of Arakan, representatives from national government agencies, and the Army conducted a Peace-Building and Development Seminar for the discontented group in Barangay Poblacion, Arakan last September 20-22.

Dao-on said the program aims to affirm the participants' decision to go back to the fold of the law.

The participants were from the remote villages of Datu Ladayon, Lanao Kuran, Tumanding, Malibatuan, Badiangon, Kabalantian, San Miguel, Salasang, Sto. Nino, Kinawayan, Kulaman Valley, Sumalili, Gambudes, and Binoongan.

“The group’s rejection of the communist rebels’ ideology and presence in their communities eventually led to their burning of the CPP-NPA-NDF flags and signing the peace covenant on Friday,” the military official said.

In the same event, Datu Narro Layura testified against the leftist groups, which he said, are actively helping the NPA to spread anti-government propaganda.

“Now we were awakened by the fact that we were fooled and that the government is now helping us,” he said in the vernacular.

“We no longer run away when we see soldiers,” said Layuran, who formerly headed a group of mass-based NPA supporters in Arakan.

Under Executive Order 70 or the "whole of nation" approach against communist insurgents, the latest batch of ex-rebels from Arakan is eligible to receive livelihood grants from the government.

The CPP-NPA-NDF is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines. (EDWIN FERNANDEZ, PNA - COTABATO) / MINDANAO EXPOSE’)

Editorial

Binge drinking: its social cost

        Of the many binge drinker Filipinos, both males and females, 3.5 million of these people belong to the age group 10 to 19. This statistics point on the very young population who are already engaged or exposed to alcoholic drinking. The danger lies on being habitual to alcohol drinking spree beyond moderation and fall to drinking addiction which would adversely affect wellness and even career.

       

According to the Food and Nutrition Council Institute, the bulk of binge drinkers belong to the 20 to 29 age group, still belonging to the young population. A binge drinker takes five or more bottles of alcoholic beverages. A bottle may contain five or more alcohol content. Liquor has more alcohol content.

       

Social drinking, they say, especially among men, binds friendship and sociability among peers, if at all on occasions only and not that frequent that one could be absent for hours in the family. Alcoholic drinkers know the effect behind the limit dosage when one suffers the hang-over syndrome. Take note, intoxication has an effect on behaviorism when remorse comes the least wanted.

       

Worrisome is the age group 10-19 when these youngsters become gradual alcoholics and could no longer manage themselves later in life. Most likely, indulging in early alcoholic drinking spree could be a result of peer influence and social experimentation. Or these young people are exposed to drinking spree among adults in their homes and neighborhood. Other factors are associated with escape mechanisms but the result of which may get themselves entangled with juvenile delinquencies. Young as they are, it is most likely that the given pocket money are used to buy alcoholic products than wise spending preference.

       

Parents, guardians, and adults have to be watchful over the 10-19 age group as this is the range of youth sensitivities and vulnerability to vices if unguided. Elders would know if these young people have drunk and it is not too late to give them a piece of advise or encourage them to resort to a more productive and meaningful activities than frequent drinking spree. Adults in the family should act as good models in behavior so young people see the essence of vice-free personality.

       

Alcohol drinking is not at all bad if taken in moderation or engaging with it during social occasions. But addiction to it is a different story because one forgets about oneself and the family. Drunkenness and its effects to once life and others would later become a social problem. There are litanies of crime stories related to drunkenness. The local government of Davao City has passed an ordinance imposing a curfew hours on night spots in a bid to prevent intoxications and crime-related incidence.

       

So folks, learn the pyramid of alcoholic drinking and size up the numericals when the mind gets irrational as a result of alcohol intake. Is this case really true? “Kulang ang araw ko kung hindi naka-inom?”

       

Take this review of literature: one factor associated with tardiness in office work is drunkenness. And take not also that frequent tardiness is a cause of work termination and such behaviorism affects or negates the quality performance in work.