BIFF attacks also hurt children's education in Maguindanao towns

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines --- The recurring attacks of the  Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters  have affected the education  of Moro children in areas they harass.

Officials said Wednesday that 1,698 grade school pupils and high school students were forced to stay home owing  Tuesday’s hostilities between the bandits and government forces in Guindulungan town alone.

Seven schools in Datu Piang, also in the second district of Maguindanao, have also been shut down as a consequence of Tuesday’s harassments by bandits of a roadside Army detachment in the area, while another group ambushed a fuel tanker and a hauler truck along the Cotabato-Gen. Santos Highway in Bagan District in Guindulungan.

Due to attacks by the BIFF, the school year 2012 in  these Maguindanao towns has fallen short of 49 days, prompting education authorities to look for measures to remedy the situation.

Classes in Guindulungan and the strife-torn barangays in Datu Saudi, Datu Unsay and Datu Piang are still suspended until Wednesday and education officials are reluctant to reopen the schools without any clearance from local government units and the military.

Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu has condemned the BIFF’s continuing attacks, perpetrated amid the  observance of the Ramadan, which will to culminate either on August 9 or 10.

Muslims fast from dawn to dusk during the Ramadan, which lasts for about 28 to 29 days, as a religious obligation and a  way to strengthen spiritual perfection through discipline and self-restraint.

The BIFF perpetrated 32 attacks in Maguindanao during the Ramadan in 2012, causing the dislocation of more than 30,000 ethnic Maguindanaon villagers.

“These children are supposed to study in their schools in a peaceful atmosphere, Education is very essential to our efforts of making the province become progressive and peaceful,” Mangudadatu said in an emailed statement.

A member of the provincial board, Bobby Katambak, said they are now deliberating on the need to declare Maguindanao under state of calamity, as requested by the governor.

Katambak said the governor and the presiding chairman of the provincial board, Vice-Gov. Lester Sinsuat,  are also planning to initiate measures to prevent an escalation of hostilities in the conflict-stricken Maguindanao towns.  - John Unson