Security tightened as ARMM prepares for Eid’l Fitr

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines – Soldiers and police officers were deployed in strategic areas of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) to prevent saboteurs from disrupting the Eid’l Fitr or the end of Ramadan, Gov. Mujiv Hataman said yesterday.

The event might fall on Aug. 8 or 9, depending on the sighting by the Islamic religious communities of the new moon that will signal the end of Ramadan.

President Aquino has declared Aug. 9 as a national holiday in observance of the Eid’l Fitr, but Muslim scholars will still continue with their centuries-old Islamic congregational moon sighting starting tomorrow night to determine if the month of Shawwal, which comes after Ramadan, starts on Aug. 8, or the day after.

Hataman said military units in the autonomous region have also been requested to tighten security in areas vulnerable to attacks by lawless groups.

Islamic theologians, among them graduates of the secular Al-Azzar University in Cairo, Egypt and Islamic universities in Libya, said Eid’l Fitr might possibly fall on Thursday, if the new moon is sighted tomorrow night.

If the new moon is not seen tomorrow night, Eid’l Fitr will be celebrated on Aug. 9, based on a 30-day actual calendar count.

Chief Superintendent Noel delos Reyes, head of the ARMM police, and Major Gen. Romeo Gapuz, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division in Maguindanao, told journalists that while security will be tight during the event, Muslim policemen and soldiers would be given time to celebrate.

Delos Reyes said Christian members of the ARMM police would extend their duty hours to allow their Muslim colleagues to observe the holiday.