Zoraini Rashid tends a sarisari store of her uncle in Darapanan, Sultan Kudarat town, Maguindanao del Norte on Wednesday (27 March 2024). MindaNews photo by ROMMEL G. REBOLLIDO
SULTAN KUDARAT, Maguindanao del Norte (MindaNews / 29 March) – Sixty-three year old Abubakar Usop, a veteran fighter of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) continues to report for guard duty to secure Camp Darapanan and the communities around it.
Darapanan is a MILF stronghold in Sultan Kudarat town, Maguindanao del Norte, where MILF leaders who are now officials and lawmakers commemorated on March 27 the 10th anniversary of the Comprehensive Agreement of the Bangsamoro (CAB), a peace accord that led to the creation of the Bangsamoro Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) that they are now running.
Usop, like many of his colleagues, are not from Darapanan but have come to render guard duty for 15 days and wait to be replaced by another group.
“We have to make sure that all is safe here,” he said in the vernacular, pointing out the big difference in what they do before that in recent years. There is now peace and people can sleep undisturbed, he told MindaNews on Wednesday.
Moro women joining the celebration.
MindaNews photo by MANMAN DEJETO
During the commemoration rites, BARMM Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim, who is also MILF chairman, cited that the CAB signing in 2014 has opened the doors in “correcting historical injustices and dismantling oppressive systems,” which hindered the development of the region and its people.
Expressing gratitude to past and present leaders of the country for their support, Ebrahim said his administration was able to reduce the region’s poverty rates, increased investments, made available employment opportunities, and worked for the opening of economic activities.
Philippine Statistics Authority data show a significant decline in BARMM’s poverty incidence by 29.8 percent in 2021 from 54.20 percent in 2018. This was accompanied by a 56-percent increase in investments.
A few meters from the gates of the camp where the commemoration rites was being held, 32-year old college student Zoraini Rashid tended to her uncle’s small sari-sari (variety) store.
Rashid, in her desire to help her family has decided to remain single, “so I can freely work on my intention to lift my family out of poverty.”
MILF Chairman and BTA Interim Chief Minister Al Haj Murad Ebrahim (3rd from left) leads the commemoration. MindaNews photo by MANMAN DEJETO
Her family also agreed with her decision to work as a domestic in the Middle East to be safe from the frequent armed clashes in their town in Talayan, Rashid told MindaNews on Wednesday, March 27.
On her return from in 2018 after a decade of working abroad, Rashid opted to stay with her relatives in Darapanan for security reasons even as she observed that “Malaki ang pinagbago, wala nang giyera, nakakapag-aral na ako.”
She is about to complete a course in Islamic Studies at the Cotabato State University, made possible with the free education program of the Bangsamoro government. Free education means free tuition, no allowance or stipend.
Abet Soledo, 53, a resident of barangay Simuay, Sultan Kudarat, also fled the fighting during the all-out-war launched by the administration of then President Joseph Estrada.
He went to work abroad as a utility of a carpet dealer in Saudi Arabia and returned home upon learning that the MILF and the Philippine government had signed the CAB in 2014.
“Nakabalik ako tapos na ang giyera, hindi talaga maganda ang giyera (I was able to return when the war was over, war is really no good),” Soledo said, recalling the days when his family would evacuate to avoid the hostilities.
Narrating his story in the vernacular, Soledo said it was good that the Bangsamoro stood their ground and fought.
Asked if he was aware what the ongoing celebration was all about, he said, “Wala nang giyera, tahimik na (No more war, it is already peaceful).
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In nearby Datu Odin Sinsuat town, also in Maguindanao del Norte, hundreds of residents fled their homes on Monday, March 25, to avoid armed fighting between a group of the MILF and the Moro National Liberation Front. (Rommel G. Rebollido/MindaNews)
