MILF development arm signs pact with NGO for projects

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – The Bangsamoro Development Authority has signed an agreement with an international non-government organization that would provide technical support to its team in the implementation of the Sajahatra Bangsamoro Project.

Ustadz Mohammed Shuwaib Yacob, Task Force Sajahatra chair, told reporters here on Saturday, the signing of the agreement took place between BDA officials and those from the Manila-based Community and Family Services International (CFSI) in Davao City on Friday.

BDA is the development arm of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front while Sajahatra is a joint government-MILF program that aims to provide the foundation of the future of Moro rebels as the peace talks progress. CFSI is a humanitarian group that operates in the country and in neighboring Asean, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.

Yacob said under the agreement, the CFSI would provide technical support to the Sajahatra management team to ensure the successful implementation of government projects being implemented under the Sajahatra Bangsamoro program.

Among the Sajahatra projects were: Philhealth membership to Muslim communities, improved health, education and social services; as well as scholarship grants from the Commission on Higher Education and the Technical Education Skills Development Authority.

Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Undersecretary Louie Montalbo said the agreement would ensure that the Sajahatra Bangsamoro staff would be able to effectively help the government in the implementation of development projects for Moro communities, which were deprived of basic government services due to armed conflict in the past.

Yacob said the staff development and capability-building program would start within the next few days.

As this developed, the Japan-based International Children’s Action Network turned over to education officials the three-classroom buildings it built in Muslim communities in Pikit, North Cotabato.

ICAN Foundation Country Director Yukiyo Nomura, ICAN Peace Building Program Coordinator Koji Matsuura, led local and international stakeholders in turning over the school building and the declaration of Schools of Peace in Pikit, North Cotabato on Thursday.

One of the classroom building were built at the Datu Embak Mangansing Memorial High School in Barangay (village) Nuangan and is generally under the Japan-Bangsamoro Initiative for Reconstruction and Development (J-BIRD) Project.

Now on its second year, the three-year project being funded by the Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ICAN Partners in Japan, aims to improve infrastructure and quality of primary and secondary education for children affected by armed conflict and to establish peace at the grass-roots level in communities near the Pikit Maridagao river basin.