Sultans and Imams from Marawi City and the nearby towns in Lanao del Sur sign their petition addressed to President Rodrigo Duterte in Iligan City on Thursday, June 15. The traditional leaders call for a ceasefire and allow negotiations which the traditional leaders will facilitate with the radical groups in Marawi City. (Zea Io Ming C. Capistrano/davaotoday.com)
ILIGAN CITY, Philippines — A Mindanao-based lawmaker believes the traditional conflict resolution proposed by Maranao traditional leaders might do the trick in the current crisis faced by Marawi City.
Bayan Muna Partylist Representative Carlos Isagani Zarate said traditional resolutions of the Moro and the indigenous peoples work.
“Dapat siguro gitagaan ni siya og chance, katong pakigstorya sa mga traditional leaders nila diri nga papahawaon ang terror groups para dili na modako pa ang kagubot unya malikayan ang grabeng destruction diri sa Marawi (This mechanism could have been given a chance, the traditional leaders could have talked to the terror groups and the severe destruction that Marawi has now could have been avoided),” Zarate told Davao Today in an interview here.
Sultanates of Lanao del Sur province and the league of Imams called on President Rodrigo Duterte yesterday to allow them to intervene and talk to the families of the extremists involved in the fighting in Marawi City.
The traditional leaders said they believe the young radicals will look up and listen to them.
Zarate said there is nothing wrong if the government would maximize “traditional conflict resolution mechanism.”
Zarate stressed that the crisis in Marawi is a social problem because of the historical injustices and problems left unaddressed by previous administrations which ignited extremists in Mindanao.
“It’s a social problem and a purely militarist solution is not the way to resolve it,” he said.
In their petition addressed to Duterte on Thursday, June 15, the traditional leaders said they are afraid that the destruction of Marawi City through fighting and bombardment “may even multiply the forces of the so-called Maute group instead of crushing them.”
“The good people of Marawi and Lanao in general suffered a lot for the Maute action and the continuous operation of the government troops which created doom, division, rift and destruction of our properties,” they said.
The leaders also addressed the Maute group that their actions in Marawi is not the right approach to voice out their sentiments.
“For the Maute group, we would like to inform them that we lova Shariah and the book of Allah and we respect their ideology but their action is not the right approach to voice out their demands and sentiments,” they said.
“We cannot implement Shariah if our city becomes ashes,” they added. (davaotoday.com)
Bangsamoro, Bayan Muna, Carlos Isagani Zarate, duterte, Marawi, Maute, moro, philippines, zarate
