TAGUM CITY—“No basis.”
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.” (davaotoday.com)
