Pres. Duterte to inspect firearms yielded by Maguindanao residents

MAGUINDANAO --- Five more towns yielded Tuesday more than a hundred unlicensed firearms, part of a cache President Rodrigo Duterte will inspect in Maguindanao’s capitol today, April 25.The firearms were turned in by local officials in Datu Anggal Midtimbang, Talayan, Guindulungan, Datu Saudi and Pandag towns, all in the second district of Maguindanao, in separate rites organized by units of the 6thInfantry Division and the Police Regional Office-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.Members of the provincial peace and order council and officers of 6thID and PRO-ARMM will present to Duterte no fewer than 800 assorted firearms without licenses today, April 25, in Buluan, Maguindanao.The undocumented firearms were turned in by local government units in Maguindanao, which has 36 towns divided into two congressional districts.Among the latest to comply with the joint Balik Baril Program of the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines were Assemblyman Khadafeh Mangudadatu of the Regional Assembly-ARMM and his wife, Zihan, incumbent mayor of Pandag.The regional lawmaker, who is representing the 2nddistrict of Maguindanao to the 24-seat ARMM legislature, turned over to authorities a .30 caliber machinegun and assault rifles.Barangay officials in Pandag, a booming agricultural town, also surrendered unlicensed guns alongside Mangudadatu, younger brother of Maguindanao’s now third-termer governor, Esmael Mangudadatu.Gov. Mangudadatu, who is interim president for Maguindanao of the administration’s Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan party, and his two other siblings, Congressman Zajid and Mayor Freddie of Mangudadatu town, have also relinquished loose firearms to authorities early on.The governor said mayors in Maguindanao will meet with Duterte during his sortie in Buluan town. I will report to President Duterte that we support the Balik Baril Program and that the provincial peace and order council want it implemented continuously as a regular government program, Gov. Mangudadatu said.He said he will also inform the president that the provincial government’s campaign to educate people in Maguindanao on the adverse effects of keeping firearms, both as status symbol and for protection from adversaries, began years ago via the Maguindanao Program for Education and Community Empowerment, or MagPEACE.The program has produced more than 2,000 professionals in the past six years and presently bankrolls the schooling of 6,000 Muslim, Christian and Lumad college students from across Maguindanao. None of these professionals that MagPEACE produced, so many of them now employed, keep firearms in their homes and in their workplaces, Gov. Mangudadatu said.He said the strong culture of love for guns among Maguindanaons is blamed on lack of education due to poverty, unemployment, high prevalence of vendetta clan feuds and the presence of feudal warlords intolerant of political opposition. That was before. We in the provincial government have settled more than a hundred clan wars since 2011, paving the way for the coming in of investors putting up vast Cavendish banana and oil palm plantations since 2013 and more capitalists keep coming in until today, Gov. Mangudadatu said.He said he will also urge Duterte to direct the PRO-ARMM and the 6thID to sustain the government’s disarmament program and dismantle all private armed groups in Maguindanao to ensure a peaceful May 2019 provincial and municipal elections in the province.Major Gen. Arnel Dela Vega of 6thID said soldiers, backed by combat vehicles, are now positioned in strategic spots around Buluan as part of the security preparations for the visit of Duterte. We are thankful to all leaders in Maguindanao’s 36 municipalities for complying with the Balik Baril Program, Dela Vega said.