MILF fighters also benefit from project for MNLF

MAGUINDANAO - Members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) also benefit from the Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan (PAMANA) projects of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) intended for communities of former combatants of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).

This is due to the proximity of the PAMANA project sites to government-recognized enclaves of the MILF, according to OPAPP’s Mindanao Information Bureau.

Records obtained from OPAPP indicated that in Maguindanao alone, seven PAMANA projects were implemented in towns where there are MILF-controlled communities.

Through the project, the OPAPP rehabilitated a farm-to-market road and constructed a water system and a multi-purpose hall in a farming enclave in Bugasan Norte in Matanog town, where members of both the MNLF and MILF dwell.

At the Mapayag District in Anggal Midtimbang town, villagers are free to use a PAMANA multi-purpose hall and fetch water from a rain catchment facility connected to the building’s roof regardless of whether they are identified with the MILF, or the MNLF.

In Barangay Kabuling in Pandag town, the PAMANA built a bailey bridge and an agricultural warehouse with a solar dryer for local farmers.

Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu, whose office is OPAPP’s partner in implementing its projects in the province, said he is thankful to the socio-economic interventions of PAMANA for underdeveloped areas covered by the government’s September 2, 1996 peace accord with MNLF.

Mangudadatu said Maguindanao, which has 36 towns, is also covered by the 1997 Agreement on General Cessation of Hostilities between the government and MILF.

The provincial government is now  constructing a two-storey “Women’s Center,” beside its satellite office in Buluan town, with the help of OPAPP chief Teresita Quintos-Deles.

OPAPP’s Mindanao Information Bureau, in an emailed statement, said local officials in the province have actively been supporting the implementation of PAMANA projects.