Murad, 300 other MILF members are Phil Health beneficiaries

From the Philippine News Agency (Feb 11): Murad, 300 other MILF members are Phil Health beneficiaries

Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chief Al Haj Murad and 300 of his followers are the latest addition to beneficiaries of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (Phil Health) membership cards as part of the Sajahatra Bangsamoro special package for the MILF launched by President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III here Monday.

The program launching took place at the newly built Bangsamoro Leadership and Management Institute here along Simuay district, adjacent to the MILF’s Camp Darapanan, the rebel group’s largest enclave in Mindanao.

Apart from medical benefits, the Sajahatra program also includes livelihood opportunities for MILF families; and education scholarship packages for their children qualified to enroll in college next school year.

In an interview, Commission on Higher Education Region 12 Director Maximo Aljibe said the government has allotted initially P20-million for the scholarship program of MILF children.

“We welcome this initial dividend of peace. We welcome this partnership,” an obviously delighted Murad said.

Earlier on today, a colorful fluvial parade, involving 150 river boats and some 200 participants filled the 20-kilometer watercourse of Butilen River in Barangay Taviran, Datu Odin Sinsuat, to Tamontaka River in Cotabato City as support to the ongoing GPH-MILF peace negotiations.

In October last year, the President and Murad witnessed the signing of their respective peace representatives to the Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro (FAB) in Malacañang, signaling the sincerity of both camps to end the decades-old Moro rebellion in Mindanao.

Currently, government and MILF peace brokers discussing particulars of the FAB, whose four annexes on territory; wealth and power sharing; normalization; modalities and transitional arrangements, intends to replace the existing Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao with an MILF-led Bangsamoro political entity.

The President’s visit here was capped by a football game under the “Sports for Peace” program at Camp Siongco, the headquarters of the Army’s Sixth Infantry Division in Barangay Awang, Datu Odin Sinsuat town, with military personnel and former Moro rebels engaging in a friendly match.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=&sid=&nid=&rid=496444