Turkish gov't donates mobile clinic to MILF

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The Turkish government donated to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front a mobile health clinic it can use for its medical missions in far-flung areas.

The MILF has two peace compacts with Malacañang, the 2013 Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro and subsequently, the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro.

Hadji Murad Ebrahim, chairman of the MILF’s central committee, said Wednesday they are thanking Turkey for its donation.

Turkey is member of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, a bloc of more than 50 Muslim nations, among them wealthy petroleum-exporting countries in the Middle East and North Africa.

The group has long been helping push Malacañang’s separate peace processes with the MILF and the Moro National Liberation Front forward.

The mobile clinic, equipped with modern medical facilities, was released to the MILF by the Turkish government via the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency.

The agency’s representative to the Philippines, Yasim Baktir, witnessed the turnover of the mobile clinic to the MILF on Monday, according to Murad.

The symbolic rite was held at Camp Darapanan, the main enclave of the MILF in Sultan Kudarat town in the first district of Maguindanao.

The MILF’s Bangsamoro Development Agency will oversee, with the help of government agencies and non-government humanitarian organizations, the medical outreach missions using the mobile clinic.

Physician Danda Juanday, chairman of the Bangsamoro Medical Society, said the mobile clinic will boost multi-sectoral efforts of providing health services to impoverished Moro communities in far-flung areas.