P718M earmarked for projects in 1996 peace deal with MNLF

ILIGAN CITY—The government will spend up to P718 million this year to build roads, bridges and irrigation facilities in areas once held by the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), a Moro rebel group that signed a peace deal in 1996 that failed to stop the Moro war for an independent state in Mindanao.

In a statement, the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (Opapp) said the money would be used to “deepen” the government’s antipoverty drive in areas once strongholds of the MNLF, a now highly fractious group that had fought some of the bloodiest battles of the continuing separatist rebellion in Mindanao.

Many of the areas that would benefit from the funds, the Opapp statement said, are in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), the country’s most impoverished but resource-rich region.

‘Pamana’

The Opapp statement said the funds would be channeled to the program it calls Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan or Pamana, which it said would be an “affirmative action agenda” to transform conflict-wracked communities into areas of peace and progress.

Through Pamana, the administration of President Aquino hopes to create a show window to convince the Moro people that peace is the way to progress.

The government is currently negotiating a peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a guerrilla group that had branched out from the MNLF and emerged as the next guerrilla force to reckon with and which was not covered by the 1996 peace deal between government and MNLF.

According to Opapp, at least one-fourth of 5,000 conflict-wracked villages in the country are in the ARMM which is composed of the provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Sulu, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi.

Opapp said the P718 million fund covers all MNLF areas in the ARMM.

Usual projects

Among the projects that are being considered for funding are farm-to-market roads, bridges, warehouses, water supply systems, health centers, community peace centers and irrigation facilities.

The projects, the Opapp said, would be identified and implemented with the help of local government units, particularly provincial governments, in the region.

Local officials will identify in which villages the projects will be implemented.

The Federation of United Mindanawan Bangsamoro Women Multi-Purpose Cooperative will act as “third-party monitor for the transparent and accountable implementation of the projects,” according to Opapp.

Peace areas

The 1996 peace agreement, signed in September by the MNLF and administration of then President Fidel Ramos, organized former MNLF bases into so-called peace and development communities that were supposed to be converted into showcases of the kind of progress that peace brings.

The communities have received millions of pesos in aid from foreign donors for livelihood projects that are supposed to help former rebels adjust to a life without war.