After almost 17 years after all-out-war, GPH and MILF panel chairs set foot again in Camp Abubakar

Government Implementing Panel for the Bangsamoro Chairperson Irene Santiago offers advice to Jalani Bulyok and Hidjara Onawal, both Alternative Learning System (ALS) learners, in Camp Abubakar to never lose hope so that one day they can achieve their dreams of becoming lawyers.

BARIRA, Maguindanao (The Redline News Philippines) —It was a historic coincidence indeed as World Bank representative Matthew Stephens noted that, in the 11 year-operation of the Mindanao Trust Fund (MTF), it is only here that both heads of the peace panels of the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) came together to grace the turnover of MTF projects.

“This is very symbolic that, after almost 17 years after the all-out-war, both panels came together here to show their support for peace and their commitment for development,” Stephens said during the turnover of a Php2.35 million Level II Water System; 120 cattledispersal livelihood project for women; and the completion ceremony of 70 basic literacy learners of the Alternative Learning System (ALS) under MTF’s camps transformation program on Tuesday, January 17, in Camp Abubakar, Brgy. Tugaig, Barira, Maguindanao.

GPH Implementing Panel Chair for the Bangsamoro Irene Santiago interacts with Bangsamoro women who are recipients of the cattle distribution project in Camp Abubakar, Brgy. Tugaig, Barira, Maguindanao. MILF Implementing Panel Chair Mohagher Iqbal and Mindanao Trust Fund Task Team Leader Matthew Stephens are also present during the cattle distribution. The project is part of the Mindanao Trust Fund – Reconstruction and Development Program, which is administered by the World Bank.

Government Implementing Panel for the Bangsamoro Peace Accords Chairperson Irene Santiago also reminisced that it was almost 17 years ago when she first set foot in Camp Abubakar, along with eight (8) other women peace advocates to meet the late MILF Chairman Salamat Hashim and try to persuade the MILF, as well as the Estrada government, to prevent the bloody all-out-war in 2000 from happening.

 “I think April yun, of course maalala niyo kasi kayo yung naapektuhan ng mas malaki (I think it was April, of course you will remember, because you were the most affected here),” Santiago said.

“It was different then. We passed roads with big rocks. It was not yet cemented,” she recalled. In 2001 up to 2004 Santiago became a member of the peace panel negotiating with the MILF.

“I am not new with your struggle, I have been with you since 1977,”

Santiago said as she expressed her joy seeing many women graduating from the ALS as she has been organizing Muslim women and serving Muslim communities all over Mindanao since 1977.

Incidentally, it is also the first time for MILF Implementing Panel Chair Mohagher Iqbal to set foot again in Camp Abubakar since the 2000 all-out-war.

“Ito ang unang pagpunta ko dito (this is my first time to come here) for almost 17 years.

The last time was on 24 April 2000 when we had a briefing with the late Chairman Salamat Hashim,” Iqbal recalls.

Normalization is having equal opportunities to dream high

The government implementing panel chair further emphasized the need to transform former MILF camps into normal, productive communities.

“I have just asked a graduate here on what she wants to be and she answered me she wants to be a teacher, but when I asked again if she wanted to become a lawyer she answered me ‘yes,’”

Santiago shares her conversation with one of the women ALS graduates.

“That is the reason why we came here for: to give you equal opportunities to dream as high as the others.

That is what we mean by normal—to dream what you really want to reach and not to think that it is hard because you are living in Moro communities.”

She urged the community to never lose hope—saying that if there is hope, there will be peace. Iqbal, for his part, calls on the community to “take ownership” and treasure the projects because development needs the intervention from people themselves citing verses form the Holy Qur’an: “Allah (SWT) does not change the conditions of the people unless they change what is in their hearts”and that “Man shall have nothing than what he strives for.”

“The government has been helping so much—we cannot deny that—but it cannot be complete if we do not help ourselves,” he added. As part of the confidence-building measures enumerated in the Annex on Normalization of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), the Government and MILF agreed to undertake necessary measures for the transformation of the six previously acknowledged MILF camps, namely: Camps Abubakar-as-Siddique, Omar, Rajamuda, Badre, Bushra, and Bilal. The Joint Task Forces on Camps Transformation, with representatives from both GPH and MILF, coordinate and facilitate development programs for the said camps.

Irene Santiago, chairperson of the government implementing panel for the Bangsamoro accords, shares a light moment with the recipients of the cattle distribution project in Camp Abubakar, Barira, Maguindanao on January 17, 2017

The Mindanao Trust Fund (MTF) is a multi-donor grant facility established in 2005 to consolidate international development assistance for the socio-economic recovery of conflictaffected communities in Mindanao, Philippines. It funds programs and projects that promote economic opportunity, provide access to basic services, and build social cohesion to help create stable and secure communities.

The Facility is administered by the World Bank. ###