Peace still a faraway dream for residents of North Cotabato

PAGALUNGAN, Maguindanao — An extremely fragile peace now reigns in the Buliok Complex at the border of this town in Pikit, North Cotabato, and farmers driven away from the area during February’s rebel-military hostilities still refuse to go back home due to threats of harassments by local Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerillas.

The government’s chief negotiator, Presidential Assistant for Mindanao Jesus Dureza, said his office, along with the 6th Infantry Division, the 602nd Brigade, and the Marines, can flexibly work out local security measures with MILF guerillas who own farmlands in Buliok Complex to enable them to peacefully till their lands in the area.

"They can return to their farms in the surroundings of the Buliok Complex if they want, but without firearms. This will minimize the irritants that can cause outbreak of hostilities. Line agencies of the national government and the military will help them replant their farms with short-term crops such as rice and corn," Dureza told The Star.

Dureza, along with his deputy, Virgilio Leyretana, Marine Commandant Major Gen. Librado Ladia, Major Gen. Generoso Senga of the 6th ID and Col. Carduzo Luna of the 602nd Brigade, toured Buliok on Monday as part of the effort to formulate a low-level program aimed at enabling Muslim civilians and MILF fighters to utilize their lands in the area.

Ladia said he has tasked the Muslim commander of the 8th Marine Battalion Landing Team, Col. Puruji Maang, an ethnic Tausog, to start initiating dialogues, along with representatives of Pagalungan Mayor Datu Makabangen Montawal, with village leaders of Buliok to build confidence and project the willingness of the Marines to rebuild their communities.

Pikit Mayor Farida Malingco, in peace dialogue with community leaders in her town on Thursday, said about 2,000 of the more than 6,000 Pikit residents displaced in the military’s liberation of guerilla enclaves in the surroundings of Buliok from rebel occupation last February have safely returned to their villages with the help of the military’s various line agencies, religious and non-government organizations.

Senga, who has supervisory control over Army and Marine units here and in Pikit, said their rehabilitation efforts are slowed down by sporadic harassments by rebels or soldiers guarding the barangays where the evacuees are supposed to return.