Peace and security tops the agenda in the first state of the region address (SORA) of the chief executive of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) delivered early this week at the Shariff Kabunsuan Cultural Center, ARMM Government Center, Cotabato City.
ARMM governor Ansaruddin Adiong said his administration has given priority to the restoration of peace and stability, especially in Maguindanao province, and to the maintenance of law and order region-wide, as a prerequisite for the renewed delivery of basic public services.
As a primary stakeholder of the peace process, the autonomous regional government has renewed its full support to the on-going peace talks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Adiong stressed.
Believing in peace as a catalyst for growth, we continuously render our full support to the peace efforts of the national government and the Moro Fronts. After all, the ARMM with its more than four million constituents, is still the biggest stakeholder of any dividend peace, he continued.
The governor disclosed that the drafting of the regional peace agenda in support of the Mindanao Peace and Development Agenda of President Benigno C. Aquino, III is in its final stage.
Our own peace agenda, the acting ARMM governor pointed out, has resulted from the series of provincial consultations which culminated in the ARMM Peace Summit held on September 20 to 21 in Cotabato City.
Adiong stated that as experience has taught us, pure military solutions would never be enough and negative events are not mere police matters. Peace and order in ARMM has taken the proportion of a social problem, he noted.
He admitted that given this reality, it would require efforts of societal magnitude to bring about the desired solution. [PIA12]
Let us hence empty our minds of any notion that the autonomous regional government alone can solve the peace and order problem in ARMM. All of us must be into that monumental task of peace-building, he urged.
He clarified that while there are issues and concerns on security, the regional atmosphere is still conducive to socio-economic activities and development works.
