Maguindanao town begins construction of covered court

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines  – Local officials proceeded Monday with the construction of a covered court for sports and as a venue for peace dialogues even without any assistance from Congress just to fulfill a campaign promise by provincial Liberal party stalwarts to residents of Datu Saudi town in the province.

Datu Saudi Mayor Sam Dimaukom and his constituents-municipal leaders jointly officiated Monday the groundbreaking for a covered court promised to them by neophyte Maguindanao Second District Rep. Datu Zajid Mangudadatu and his older brother, Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu.

Dimaukom said the Mangudadatu siblings gave them the imprimatur to proceed with the launching of the project, despite the uncertainty on whether the newly-elected lawmaker can avail of any infrastructure grant from the House of Representatives owing to the suspension of the controversial Priority Development Assistance Fund.

Gov. Mangudadatu has committed to help Rep. Mangudadatu and the office of Dimaukom raise funds for the covered court.

Rep. Mangudadatu said he has to keep his campaign promise of constructing the covered court to live up to a strong Islamic tradition of keeping political pledges as a religious obligation.

Datu Saudi is a bastion of Moro guerrilla forces and Dimaukom’s office has been trying to build peace with them through municipal-level backchannel dialogues and economic interventions supported by the Mangudadatus and the executive department of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

"No guerrilla will ever oppose government projects intended to improve the lives of people in their communities. When they see projects being implemented everywhere, they will feel the government's sincerity in dealing with them," Dimaukom said in Filipino.

Dimaukom said the covered court couold be a good venue for outreach activities such as joint medical and dental mission of the local government and the military.

The Datu Saudi LGU had earlier provided free medical and dental services to hundreds of local residents in a recent outreach mission supported by different government entities, the office of the provincial governor, and different Army units in the province.