MAGUINDANAO: Samad, a 43-year-old Moro farmer in Datu Saudi town, is optimistic he can recover in the next two harvest seasons the losses he incurred from armed conflicts that thrice devastated their village in recent months if the peace now in their municipality continues.
“With the tranquility we now enjoy, government interventions intended to alleviate us from underdevelopment can take off without any disruption,” Samad said in the Maguindanaon dialect.
All of the barangays in Datu Saudi, a rice-producing town in the second district of Maguindanao, were badly affected by incursions by the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters in 2011 and in August to September in 2012.
Makmod Mending Jr, regional agriculture secretary of the Autonomous Region Muslim Mindanao, led over the weekend the first ever “rice harvest festival” in Datu Saudi to showcase how local officials and the Autonomous Region Muslim Mindanao are cooperating in restoring normalcy in conflict-stricken rice-producing areas in the province.
The festival was also graced by Datu Saudi Mayor Samsudin Dimaukom, Abdulrashid Ladayo of the ARMM’s Cooperative Development Authority, and representatives from the office of Maguindanao Governor Esmael Mangudadatu.
Mending said Mangudadatu’s office has been helping rebuild farming communities in the province through his free orchard, oil palm, and rubber tree seedling dispersal project, which started as early as 2010, during his first term as provincial governor.
The Philippine star
