‘Pamana benefits our communities’ – MNLF leaders

From the Manila Bulletin (Jul 15): ‘Pamana benefits our communities’ – MNLF leaders

Leaders of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in Tawi-Tawi are asserting that projects under the government’s Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan (Pamana) program have benefited their communities.

“Pamana brings progress to our communities,” Phaysal Aral, an MNLF commander who went by the name Omar Shariff at the height of the Moro revolution in the 1970s, said in the vernacular.

In a statement emailed to the Manila Bulletin yesterday, Aral pointed out: “I was part of the team that helped build additional classrooms at the Yusoph Dais Elementary School in Barangay Sanga-Sanga, Bongao, Tawi-Tawi.”

Aral recalled that “at the height of Martial Law, entire barangay of Sanga-Sanga was razed to the ground in a major battle (between government troops and MNLF forces).”

“We need more developmental projects like these. We see the need for more school buildings because our population is growing,” Mohamadnoe Jamaluddin, another MNLF commander said.

Aside from classrooms, Jamaluddin said, Pamana also built the lone health center in their village where even residents outside Sanga-Sanga availed of services.

He said the Pamana program also funded the Pakias-Karungdong road project, which he claimed to have eased movement of residents and the transport of their farm produce. The road was a narrow footpath, he said.

Other MNLF commanders in Tawi-Tawi, Basilan, Sulu, Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao, all in ARMM, said the Pamana program also funded potable water systems, peace centers and agricultural infrastructures.

Pamana was launched after President Aquino assumed office in 2010 purposely to spur reconstruction efforts in conflict-affected communities, especially those inhabited by MNLF people.

http://www.mb.com.ph/pamana-benefits-our-communities-mnlf-leaders/