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By EDD K. USMAN | Twitter: @edd1819 | Instagram: @bluestar0910 | Facebook: SDN — Scitech and Digital News
(SDN) — The National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) today, August 16, 2023, unveiled Vision 2040, the Commission’s Reform and Development Agenda.
Through the Planning Service of the NCMF headed by Director Haidee V. Ampatuan, the Commission launched Vision 2040, welcoming an array of VIPs and dignitaries from the foreign diplomatic community, Filipino political leaders, and the Muslim communities in Metro Manila.
Ampatuan said the NCMF Reform and Development Agenda is aimed at transforming the Commission “into a project development organization pursuing to meet the long-felt needs of the Muslim Filipinos, particularly with socio-economic and peace building” built in. She is the wife of Philippine Army (PA) Gen. Taharuddin Ampatuan.
With the launch, Director Ampatuan pointed out the Commission’s confidence of winning the support of the administration of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. and the international community for the programs and projects mentioned in Vision 2040.
She said the Vision 2040 programs and projects “are catch-up development plans for Muslim Filipinos looking to enhance their social and economic life. Every Muslim Filipino should aspire to promote peace, compete on the world stage, give back to their community, and actively contribute to the development of their country.”
Director Ampatuan pointed out that Vision 2040 was crafted under direction from NCMF Secretary Guiling A. Mamondiong and is aligned with the five-year Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2023-2028.
NCMF Commissioner Michael M. Mamukid opened the afternoon launch of Vision 2040 at Dusit Thani Hotel Makati as he welcomed participants and guests.
It’s a “significant milestone for Muslims in the Philippines,” the commissioner emphasized. “As minority (in the Philippines) they need collaboration to uplift their lives. Through (this) event they can (develop) collaboration with government agencies.”
Mamukid, a lawyer, said Vision 2040 is geared towards social, economic, and peacebuilding.
3 needs of Muslim Filipinos: socio-economic, socio-cultural, and social protection
NCMF Executive Director Tahir S. Lidasan II, CESO, recalled the predecessors of the NCMF, such as the Office of Muslim Affairs and Cultural Communities (OMACC) created by then President Ferdinand E. Marcos, Sr. in 1984 through Executive Order 969, followed by the Office on Muslim Affairs (OMA) established by President Corazon C. Aquino under Executive Order No. 122-A on January 30, 1987.
Lidasan said the NMCF then replaced and abolished OMA by virtue of Republic Act No. 9997 in 2010.
Section 1 of EO No. 969, Series of 1984, underscored the State’s policy of ensuring “the integration of national cultural communities into the mainstream of. Filipino society with due regard for their beliefs, customs, traditions, and institutions, and to further enhance their contribution to national goals and aspirations as active participants in nation building equal in stature, dignity, and opportunity with all other citizens.”
On the other hand, OMA was mandated to “preserve and develop the culture, traditions, institutions, and well-being of Muslim Filipinos”.
In identifying “Muslim Filipinos”, the term refers to the 13 ethno-linguistic communities under the collective name “Moro”.
The Moro communities (the term Moro is apparently from Muslim Spain’s Moors).
Here are the Islamized ethnolinguistic groups in the Philippines, according to the Bangsamoro Commission for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage (BCPCH), formerly Bureau of Cultural Heritage (BCH), of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM):
- Meranao
- Maguindanaon
- Iranun
- Yakan
- Tausug
- Sama
- Sama di Laut
- Jama Mapun
- Kagan/Kalagan
- Kolibugan
- Sangil
- Molbog
- Palawanon
Expectedly, the mandate of the NCMF covers the mandates of its two predecessors, and even further strengthened and with additional tasks and responsibilities.
Lidasan said the OMACC was “envisioned to address all the problems of Muslims in the Philippines”.
Likewise, the NCMF is an implementing agency of the government, it’s a think tank, a Hajj facilitating agency, also a coordinating body, and more, he added.
Soon, Lidasan said, the NCMF would be joining the billion-budgeted government agency, which has a budget in 2018 amounting to Php518 million.
He appealed to BARMM congressmen and other Muslim solons in Congress to help raise the NCMF’s budget for Fiscal Year 2024 to Php1 billion as it’s only a matter of additional Php70 million from its 2023 budget.
The NCMF executive director has three distinct needs: “socio-economic, socio-cultural, and social protection”.
Address the three needs, Lidasan believes, and “you have happy Muslim Filipinos”. (/)