Catching fish: Rival forces work in peace in NCotabato town

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines — There exists a foreign-assisted livelihood project in Kabacan town that ushered in peace among formerly hostile forces of the rivals Moro National Liberation Front and Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

The Enhancing Resilience by Strengthening Livelihoods, which involves dozens of MNLF and MILF peasants in Barangay Pedtad in Kabacan, was pioneered by the town’s local government, the European Union, the World Food Program of the United Nations and different line agencies.

The project beneficiaries put up tilapia fishpond as a communal venture more than a year ago, which they manage through the traditional Moro consensus-building tradition in managing community affairs.

Residents of Barangay Pedtad were also given free livelihood training by the project’s benefactors, among them the office of provincial governor Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza.

Adam Mantawil, one of the acknowledged traditional leaders in Barangay Pedtad, said farmers are now earning extra income from the project.

“Members of the MILF and the MNLF work together here in the community as one big family,” Mantawil said in Filipino.

Journalists from Metro Manila and across Mindanao were toured by WFP officials in Barangay Pedtad on Saturday to see how local folks are now benefiting from the project.

The tour was part of the EU’s journalism peace awards program, which was launched in Cotabato City last Friday.

The program’s symbolic kick-off rite was graced by MILF’s Muhaquer Iqbal, chairman of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission, a representative of the EU, Edoardo Manfrendini, senior staffers of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the peace process and multi-awarded international journalist Veronica Pedroza of Al-Jazeera.

Pedroza, born in the Philippines but raised in the United Kingdom, worked for the British Broadcasting Corporation and the American television outfit Cable News Network.

The launching of the peace awards program brought together dozens of “peace journalists” from across Mindanao, from the Visayas and Metro Manila.

RELATED: EU launches Peace Journalism Awards in Philippines

Residents of Barangay Pedtad were elated to see visiting journalists taking photos of their inland fishpond and peasants harvesting tilapia using nets.

A 35-year-old mother, who asked to be identified only as Salima, said fish caught in the fishpond provides nourishment for her children and extra income needed to fund their education.

She said education is necessary in building peaceful and progressive Moro communities in Barangay Pedtad and surrounding farming enclaves in Kabacan and other parts of North Cotabato.