ARMM LGUs urged to allocate budget for curbing extremism

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Officials on Friday urged local government units in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) to spend some amount from internal revenues for special programs meant to curb Islamic militancy in remote ARMM towns.

Lawyer Kirby Abdullah, regional secretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government-ARMM (DILG), said LGUs have autonomy to allocate amount for such projects from the 20 percent allocation for domestic development thrusts from the monthly Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA).

Abdullah said ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman, presiding chairman of the inter-agency regional peace and order council, is helping address religious extremism via massive implementation of infrastructure projects in impoverished areas to generate livelihood opportunities for unemployed residents militants can easily recruit into radical groups fashioned like the Independent State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Major Gen. Carlito Galvez Jr., commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division based in Maguindanao province, on Friday said they would need the support of mayors and provincial governors in preventing the rise of local groups claiming allegiance to ISIS.  

“Good governance, cooperation among political leaders, the local religious communities, the police and the military will solve the problem,” he said.

Galvez cited as example how the office of Hataman, the local government units and security authorities in Basilan, a component province of ARMM, are gaining headway now in their peace and security programs.

While still colonel, Galvez served as a brigade commander in Basilan, a beneficiary of more than 200 infrastructure projects, bankrolled by the ARMM government, in the past four years.

Among the areas the ARMM shall provide with more infrastructure projects from this year up to 2019 is the hostile Sulu island province, known all over the world as the bastion of the Abu Sayyaf.

The Abu Sayyaf, which is using the black ISIS flag as its revolutionary banner, is capitalizing on the grinding poverty, underdevelopment and poor governance in Sulu’s 18 towns to foment public hatred to Malacañang.

The Abu Sayyaf has been using Sulu as harboring site for captives kidnapped abroad and in nearby Mindanao provinces. The group is feared for its practice of beheading captives if ransom demands are not met.

Hataman said the LGUs in conflict-stricken ARMM towns need to regularly convene the multi-sectoral municipal peace and order councils to formulate domestic projects that can hasten the restoration of normalcy in oft-troubled areas where there are religious extremists.

“We in the regional government can provide some interventions but the bulk of the work lies on the shoulders of local executives and their respective LGUs,” Hataman said.

Abdullah said one of the main concerns now of DILG-ARMM is for LGUs in far-flung areas to participate extensively in peace-building activities that can help boost the peace efforts of President Rodrigo Duterte.