VIOLENCE CAN鈥橳 KILL A DREAM Muslima Mentong, with her three daughters, shows a picture in her cell phone of her slain husband Samarudin (right) whom she has succeeded as president of the people鈥檚 organization at her barangay in Maguindanao del Sur. 鈥擟ONTRIBUTED PHOTOS
(First of a series)
Datu Hoffer Ampatuan, Maguindanao del Sur鈥擲amarudin Guimalil Mentong knew that peace, not war, was the key to a better life.
At 20 years old, he had taken over as commander of Camp Omar in the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) war against the government.
But as a peace agreement took hold, Samarudin, a high school graduate, welcomed development initiatives by aid workers in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
He was elected president of the people鈥檚 organization (PO) in his barangay two years ago under a novel, bottom-up community-driven program. Here, the people chose from proposals of livelihood projects by donors and aid groups during consultation meetings.
A strapping 35-year-old with Arab looks and a military bearing, Samarudin had just attended a three-hour meeting last September and had hitched a ride to the highway on his way home when gunmen struck, killing him and his two aides.
The MILF commander had survived two previous attacks in his corn farm, said his wife, Muslima, 34. She said her husband had told her the night before that should anything happen to him, she should continue what he had begun.
鈥淵ou should go on, even if you do it with a heavy heart,鈥� said Muslima, then vice president of the 28-member PO, her eyes misty. 鈥淭hat is what the people want.鈥�
Muslima has taken over as PO president, pursuing activities her husband had started. These include producing coconut oil in the mainly coconut farmland, baking pastries, carpentry.
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She supports her three talented daughters by selling sweet potatoes and bananas.
Muslima dismissed news reports that her husband鈥檚 death was a result of 鈥渞ido鈥濃�攁n often bloody squabble over land ownership.
Spanish support
She said his enemies thought he had amassed power and was gaining financially from the Communities for Learning and Employment Project program funded by the Madrid-based Cooperaci贸n Espa帽ola.
Implemented by the international humanitarian agency Community and Family Services International (CFSI), the program provides technical experts, basic tools and implements.
鈥淢y father is gone,鈥� Mentong鈥檚 daughter Anjap, 14, said in a message on Messenger to Sittie Airah Usman Pendi, 25, a CFSI community organizer.
鈥淚 was super affected,鈥� said Airah, 鈥淭he program really gave hope. It allowed the people to show that survival did not mean dependence on alms alone.鈥�
Children鈥檚 playgrounds
Camp Omar is one of six major MILF camps targeted for rehabilitation under a March 2014 peace agreement with the Philippine government.
Following then President Joseph Estrada鈥檚 鈥渁ll-out war鈥� against the MILF, CFSI began 鈥減sychosocial鈥� activities for children in evacuation camps, gaining acceptance of local governments initially apprehensive of threats to their authority, the combatants, bandits, kidnappers and other lawless elements.
Dialogues at the grassroots turned into community-driven programs, said Noraida Abdullah Karim, CFSI鈥檚 director for Mindanao.
鈥淲e became a platform for reconciliation,鈥� said Noraida, because of the agency鈥檚 perceived neutrality.
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But it also led to close calls. She had seen the wrong end of an Armalite, but has continued to soldier on.
The parties then requested the World Bank to raise $38 million from international donors to finance the building of infrastructure, shelters, health and education facilities in the largely agricultural and forested region reduced to ashes during the MILF wars.
Some 638,000 people鈥�52 percent women鈥攇ained from the activities. Where there once was despair, optimism emerged. Hope springs eternal.
It is election season and the excitement is palpable. The armed forces and police behind armored personnel carriers maintain checkpoints along the highways and are courteous and polite.
鈥淕ive peace a chance,鈥� proclaims one Philippine National Police truck.
Motorcades of the dominant United Bangsamoro Justice Party of Al Haj Murad Ebrahim, a former chief minister of the BARMM, roam the cities.
Widows of War
Highways are festooned with portraits of candidates, most scions of prominent rajahs, including a congressional aspirant with movie-star looks named 鈥淒imple.鈥�
Business is booming. A new mall, KCC, has just opened, adding to the string of Robinson鈥檚 shopping centers, and competing with ramshackle eateries offering 鈥減astel鈥濃�攔ice and chicken adobo strips.
The grand mosque built by the Sultan of Brunei looms in the distance.
鈥淲e have been transformed from a war zone into an economic zone,鈥� said Iskak Managsa, the municipal agriculturist at Matanog.
Managsa organized WOW鈥擶idows of War鈥攖o produce and sell coffee, tea, chili powder. Each member earns as much as P1,000 a month, a fortune, from organic farming using fermented fruit juice as fertilizer.
It is something that Muslima Mangi Mentong hopes to achieve in her village.
(The writer is a former reporter and aid worker who has been assigned to conflict zones in Asia, Africa, the Balkans and the Middle East.)