Tuesday, May 28, 2013

MILF: Moro woman educator passes away; MILF extends condolence

Posted to the MILF Website (May 27): Moro woman educator passes away; MILF extends condolence

Dr. Hadja Sittie Nurlaila Emily M. Marohombsar, a very prominent Muslim educator and scion of one of the largest traditional and political Moro clans in Lanao, succumbed to heart failure last Friday afternoon, May 24, 2013, at the Capitol University Medical Center in Cagayan de Oro City.

She was laid to rest according to Islamic rites in her hometown in the Municipality of Ganassi, Lanao del Sur last Saturday, May 25.

Dr. Marohombsar was a distinguished alumnus of the Philippine Women’s University (PWU) where she graduated Summa Cum Laude. She was the first among the very few Muslim Moro women then who studied at the PWU in the early 50s. She pursued her post-graduate studies at the Ateneo de Manila, the University of Hawaii and Harvard University in the US.

She was also a pioneering faculty member of the Mindanao State University (MSU) when the latter was established in 1962.

Many of the well-known Moro professionals, who have succeeded in their respective fields of endeavor, including politics, were her students at one time or another.

She was an icon to many Muslims, both women and men, in the Lanao provinces who are in the field of education.

She became President of the MSU in 1992 up to about 1997 and carried the distinction of being the first Muslim woman to be ever appointed by government to that position up till now.

Meanwhile, Mohagher Iqbal, chair of the MILF peace panel, who knew late educator-negotiator because she was part of the government peace panel, sent condolence to the family and relatives for her passing away.

“I know her very well and she is a very amiable personality and so easy to9 deal with her,” Iqbal told Luwaran in an interview.

“We missed another good person and may Allah bless her soul,” Iqbal added.
From 1998 to 2003, she became a member of the Peace Negotiating Panel of the Philippine government negotiating with the MILF.

Just before the presidential elections of 2004, Dr. Marohombsar, together with another female member of the panel, resigned from the GPH Peace Panel after reportedly being disillusioned with the “insincere” way the then regime of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was handling the negotiations with the MILF.

It is likewise worth mentioning that Dr. Marohombsar is the maternal aunt (younger sister of his late mother) of Robert Maulana M. Alonto, a senior member of the MILF Peace Negotiating Panel and concurrently a member of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC). He and Professor Abhoud Syed Lingga (also a member of the MILF Peace Panel) were once her students during their university years.

Despite having served as negotiator of the government for a period of time, the MILF has high regards for Dr. Marohombsar, whose many relatives are also active members of the MILF and the MNLF.

http://www.luwaran.com/

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