This is what Mohagher Iqbal, Moro Islamic Liberation Front
(MILF) chief peace negotiator, said on the Senate resolution seeking to probe
the Sajahatra Bangsamoro Program.
Iqbal denied Thursday that there were irregularities in the
implementation of Malacanang’s socio-economic initiative for Moro communities
dubbed as “Sajahatra Bangsamoro Program.”
“Their suspicions were unfounded and has no basis at all,”
says Iqbal, speaking for the MILF.
Senator Ma. Lourdes Binay filed the resolution after she got
wind of insinuations that that the program was reportedly implemented “secretly
and without the knowledge of and coordination with local government units”.
Binay chairs the Senate committee on social justice,
welfare, and rural development. She said that Presidential peace adviser,
Teresita Deles, was implementing the program “favourably to the Muslims only”.
“The program is stated as not exclusive to MILF members and
be open to all Christians, Muslims and Lumads in the area,” Binay said in the
explanatory note of her Senate Resolution No. 1241.
The government and MILF launched Sajahatra Bangsamoro in
February 2013 and has been earmarked with an initial budget of P600 million
which was aimed to uplift the health, education and livelihood conditions of
the Moro communities in Mindanao .
The socio-economic program covers 10 provinces namely:
Basilan, Sulu, Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Lanao del Norte, North Cotabato, South Cotabato , Davao Oriental, Zamboanga Sibugay and
Tawi-Tawi in ARMM.
The MILF believes that the Sajahatra Bangsamoro Program is
“a concrete support to the ongoing peace process.”
http://davaotoday.com/main/politics/sajahatra-bangsamoro-program-inquiry-has-no-basis-milf/
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.