Carmen, Cotabato—The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) celebrated peace by honoring Christian communities for taking care of Muslim families during the height of the insurgency in the 1970s.
Interior and Local Governments Minister Naguib Sinarimbo said the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) is giving back to communities on orders of BARMM Chief Minister Ahod Balawag Al-Hadj Murad Ebrahim, who is also the MILF chairman.
During the groundbreaking of BARMM’s barangay hall projects in Manarapan village here on Tuesday, Commander Kenig Inalang, chairman of the MILF Kapalawan Provincial Committee sat side by side with Philippine Army Col Juvencio Gonzales, chief of the 602nd Brigade. Both men spoke of development and peace.
Cotabato Board Member Kelly Antao said he had given up chairmanship of the Peace and Order Committee since the war is now over. He said he has shifted membership to the agriculture committee and headed the infrastructure committee at the same time.
“I have given up the chairmanship of the peace and order committee (in the Provincial Board), because the war is over and we now have to shift to reconstruction, to infrastructure programs, because we are celebrating peace—and seeing MILF Commander Kenig Inalang and Col Juvencio Gonzales sitting next to each other shows best our celebration of peace,” Antao said in Filipino.
Section 15, Article IX (the Basic Rights provisions) of the Bangsamoro Organic Law, provides that “The Bangsamoro Government shall ensure that the settlers (the Settler Communities) enjoy the rights guaranteed in this Organic Law,” Sinarimbo, a lawyer, said.
Inalang publicly acknowledged the help of his Christian neighbors. He also said he considers Samantha Talino, the daughter and representative of Vice Governor Lala Talino-Mendoza as his granddaughter.
“She is like our granddaughter; her family, her grandfather treat the Muslim community here kindly,” Inalang said, referring to Samantha and her grandfather, former Carmen Mayor Roger Talino, his contemporary.
Carmen is a place of several massacres—the infamous Manili Massacre on June 19, 1971, and Liliongan Massacre on December 24, 1992. The suspect in the latter has since been named; while not one particular identity among the plotters or perpetrators of the first incident has been known.