British entity reaches out to BARMM government
BANGSAMORO NEWS UPDATES • 16:00 PM Thu Mar 24, 2022
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By:
John M. Unson
Bangsamoro Labor Minister Muslimin Sema and the British dignitaries Lord Jack McConnell and Matthew Hedges inset. (John Unson)
COTABATO CITY --- Two British dignitaries and the Bangsamoro labor minister agreed Wednesday to cooperate on promoting the welfare of the local labor sector and decommissioned Moro guerillas covered by the Mindanao peace process.
Lord Jack McConnell of the House of Lords, United Kingdom, Matthew Hedges of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) and Bangsamoro Labor Minister Muslimin Sema also talked about interventions meant to strengthen democracy in the regional government and its constituent-communities.
They met at the office of the Bangsamoro labor ministry in Cotabato City on Wednesday morning.
The WFD works with parliaments, political parties and civil society groups as part of an effort to enhance political systems in other countries and to help ensure transparency and accountability in governments.
The British government is a longtime supporter of the Mindanao peace process --- aiming to put a diplomatic closure to the southern Moro problem hounding the country since the 1970s.
Sema said he is thankful to McConnell and Hedges and Cynthia Guerra, WFD’s team leader here, for having reached out to the Ministry of Labor and Employment-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Sema said MOLE-BARMM has programs focused on the welfare and protection of the local labor sector and other stakeholders to the Mindanao peace process, among them former Moro combatants.
Sema is chairman of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) that forged on September 2, 1996 a final peace pact with Malacañang.
The chief minister of BARMM, Ahod Ebrahim, is the chairman of the central committee of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
The MILF’s 22 years of negotiations with the national government led to the setting up in early 2019 of the Bangsamoro government that then replaced the 29-year now defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Sema and Ebrahim are helping each other address the decades-old Moro quest for self-governance.
McConnell and Hedges had told Sema they are concerned with the plight of former Moro rebels now being reintegrated into mainstream society.
The two officials had said the WFD and the labor ministry can together help them become productive while restoring normalcy in their communities.
Sema and the two British officials have agreed to continue communicating about issues and concerns the labor ministry and the WFD can help address via its team in the Bangsamoro region.