ARMM celebrates 24th anniversary

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Employees of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) on Thursday paraded here in traditional attires fashioned from handwoven fabrics in a show off marking the start of their month-long observance of the ARMM’s 24th founding anniversary.

The event, held at the grounds of the 32-hectare ARMM compound here, was an initial highlight of the celebration of the region’s 24th founding anniversary, which is to last until December 19, when local residents commemorate the Shariff Kabunsuan Day.

The Kabunsuan Day is a non-working regional holiday observed yearly to honor Shariff Mohammad Kabunsuan, a Muslim missionary from Johore, now an island state in Malaysia, who arrived in the 14th century in what is now Cotabato City to preach Islam.

ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman, who wore Yakan clothes, and his deputy, Vice-Gov. Haroun Al-Rashid Lucman, Jr. led the employees of different regional departments in Thursday’s kickoff ceremony for the anniversary feast.

Hataman, of Yakan descent, hails from Sumisip town in Basilan, while Lucman is an ethnic Maranaw who belong to the Lucman clan of Bayang, Lanao del Sur.

Hataman, in a statement, said one of their purposes in embarking on different cultural shows during their month-long celebration of the ARMM’s 24th founding anniversary is to depict the unique cultural identities of the region’s Moro and non-Muslim indigenous groups.

Hataman said it is important to show, during their festivities, dubbed “Pakaradjaan sa ARMM,” the peculiarities of the region’s local communities, which have different traditions and cultures, but are bound by Islam as a common religion.

“And the region’s non-Muslim indigenous groups are also related to us. There is no separation, except for religious identities. We are one because we only have one community before the dawn of Islam in this part of the country. One people, one voice, one direction – unity, peace and prosperity,” Hataman said.

The start of the celebration of the ARMM’s 24th founding anniversary coincided with Thursday’s Sheik Karimul Makdum Day.

The Makdum Day is also a yearly regional holiday being observed throughout the autonomous region in commemoration of the arrival 633 years ago in Simunul, now an island town in Tawi-Tawi, of Arab preacher Makdum from the Middle East.

Makdum was the first ever Muslim cleric to set foot in Mindanao to spread Islam.