Moro educator’s death mourned

By Ali G. Macabalang

COTABATO CITY, Philippines  – A scion of Lanao region’s Alonto political clan involved in extensive education programs for Moro generations passed away on Wednesday, leaving peace advocates and fellow educators across the country in state mourning.

In his mid-60s, Dr. Abdullah Dancal Alonto suffered cardiac arrest early morning while on sojourn in Manila, Robert Maulana Alonto-Marohombsar, a cousin and peace panelist of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), announced through the social media.

Immediate kin led by current Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) Chairman Abul Khay Alonto, elder sibling of the deceased, rushed to Manila to bring and bury the cadaver in Marawi City within 24 hours based on Islamic rites.

The deceased was nurtured in a family of politicians led by his father, late former Lanao del Sur Governor Abdul Gaffur Alonto, uncle late Senator Ahmad Domocao Alonto, and late grandfather Senator Alauya Alonto. But he opted to join the field of education to flesh out his elders’ strides in helping bring the Moro people into the mainstream.

Dr. Alonto’s father, apart from being a seasoned politician, had served as Philippine ambassador to Lybia and as the first commissioner of the defunct Commission on National Integration (CNI), a national government agency meant to integrate cultural minorities into mainstream through education.

Hundreds of relatives, friends and associates took to the social media their expressions of grief and condolences on the death of Dr. Alonto, who served as vice president of the Marawi City-based Mindanao State University. (by: Ali Macabalang/posted by Becky D. de Asis - The Redline News)