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COTABATO CITY (SDN) — Borne out of 17 years of peace negotiations and decades of conflict, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) has been constructing and establishing Peace Centers in various schools.
The latest of which is to be constructed at the Cotabato State University (CSU) Campus in the city along busy Sinsuat Avenue, the BARMM capital.
Through the Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education (MBHTE) headed by Minister Mohagher M. Iqbal, the education ministry, one of the BARMM’s primary ministries, will construct a two-storey Peace Center Building inside the CSU Campus. Budget is Php4.94 million subsidized under the Transitional Development Impact Fund (TDIF) Fiscal Year (FY) 2023.
Education officials from MBHTE and CSU held the groundbreaking ceremony for the Peace Center Building on September 27.
On September 21, the MBHTE broke ground for another two-storey Peace Center Building at the Mindanao State University (MSU) Sulu in Barangay Bangkal, Capitol Site, Jolo, Sulu.
The construction will also be funded under the TDIF 2023, amounting to Php4,89 million.
Among the objectives for the establishment of the new center is aimed to provide a space for peace negotiation in conflict-affected areas. Encouraging end to violence and addressing societal issues in the region.
Note that the Supreme Court last month issued a ruling that the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) is “constitutional” but at the same time the decision authored by Justice Marvic Leonen removed Sulu from the Bangsamoro region effectively immediately.
Question: What would happen to the Peace Center Building already broken ground for?
The Bangsamoro region, established in 2018 by the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) to implement the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), is made up of the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, and Tawi-Tawi, the cities of Cotabato, Lamitan, and Marawi, as well as the Special Geographic Area’s (SGA) 63 barangays or villages that voted “Yes” in a plebiscite in February 2019 to be under the BARMM jurisdiction. With the recent plebiscite at SGA, the BARMM now has eight new municipalities as residents voted “Yes”.
According to the Philippine Atlas BARMM has 4,404,288 people. It has 116 municipalities (plus eight newly established under the SGA: Basilan, 11 municipalities; Lanao del Sur, 39; undivided Maguindanao, 36; Sulu, 19; and Tawi-Tawi, 11. Its component cities are Cotabato (the regional center and capital) in Maguindanao; Lamitan in Basilan; and Marawi in Lanao del Sur. — EDD K. USMAN (✓)