MARAWI CITY, Lanao del Sur (PIA)–The government’s arms-to-farms program has truly borne good fruit with all the evident positive events.
Just as the Ministry of Trade Investments and Tourism (MTIT) moved to ramp up the coffee production in the province of Lanao del Sur, the 102nd Base Command of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) located in the municipality of Madamba has also been magnified to be venturing into the same industry, being part of the process of returning to the government fold, and renewed from being an armed camp to an agricultural community.
With the MTIT recently standing at the forefront of the creation of a technical working group (TWG) focusing on the advancement of the coffee industry in the province, Hanif Salindawan, the camp’s administrative officer, underlined the great necessity of the formation of such a group to boost the coffee production.
He stressed that the assembly of the TWG can be attributed to one of the wonderful successes of the government ministries composing it.
Salindawan shared that their camp has a wide land that can be planted with varied crops and plants but accordingly, they cannot take any progressive action due to lack of support.
As such, he looked forward to an effort to aid them to make use of their available land.
“Sa TWG na ito, baka dito na manggaling ang kinakailangan namin ng anumang technical support na wala tayo noon… Hindi ito kaya ng isang opisina. Sa pamamagitan ng pagcreate ng TWG na ito ay magiging isang pwersa na so mas malakas ang kalabasan ng TWG na ito,” said Salindawan.
[To this TWG, maybe this will be the source of any technical support we did not have before… This cannot be done by only one office. Through creating the TWG, there will be one force so there will be a mightier result from this TWG.]
The administrative officer conveyed his delightfulness, citing that this could help in the total transformation of their communities from being an armed group to farmers as they are given the chance to work as better citizens of the country.
“Sa TWG, maraming salamat. Sana ay tuloy-tuloy na ang TWG na ito. Sa kapwa ko farmers, sana hindi tayo mawalan ng pag-asa na may mas marami at mas malaki pa ang maitutulong gobyerno,” he said.
[To the TWG, thank you so much. I hope this TWG is continuous. To my fellow farmers, I hope you do not lose hope because there are a lot and bigger things that the government can help.]
The 102nd Base Command bared that in its area of jurisdiction alone, more or less 300 hectares are ready to be planted with coffee. Moreover, he said their camp holds roughly 100 farmers. (CRG/PIA-10/Lanao del Sur)
