Engineers hold first ever ARMM regional PICE conclave

COTABATO CITY - More than 200 engineers from southern provinces converged here and assured to support cross-section efforts to restore normalcy in troubled areas.The event, the first ever in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, brought together the Muslim, Christian and Lumad members of the Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers, or PICE, from ARMM’s five provinces.The ARMM covers Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, which are both in mainland Mindanao, and the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.Issues and concerns besetting the regional community of engineers were discussed during their November 20 to 21 gathering here.Participants also reached a consensus to bond together and continue supporting peaceful means of addressing peace and security issues in the autonomous region.The peace process between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which has dozens of enclaves in the autonomous region, is partly focused on socio-economic interventions meant to hasten the recovery of areas devastated by armed conflicts.The two-day activity here of PICE members in the region, held at the 300-seater Shariff Kabunsuan Cultural Complex inside the 31-hectare ARMM compound, was organized jointly by Engineers James Mlok and Don Mustapha Loong.Mlok is the president of the PICE for Cotabato City and Maguindanao area. He is also the incumbent chief of Maguindanao’s Second District Engineering Office.Loong, PICE regional coordinator for the autonomous region, is the public works secretary of ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman, whose administration is a staunch supporter of the southern Mindanao peace process.Lawyer Laisa Masuhud Alamia, ARMM’s executive secretary, addressed the participants to the event on behalf of the region’s chief executive, Gov. Mujiv Hataman.Alamia told them teamwork will make them stronger in pushing their peace and development agenda forward.Among the key speakers in the dialogue of ARMM’s PICE chapters were the vice president of the institute, Engineer Robert Licup, and MILF’s top peace negotiator Muhaquer Iqbal, a key member of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission.Iqbal, in a message, acknowledged the role of engineers in peace-building and their importance to efforts of rebuilding communities affected by armed conflicts in past decades.He also talked about the Bangsamoro Organic Law, the enabling measure for the replacement of ARMM with a Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, or BARMM, if ratified via a plebiscite in its proposed core territory on January 21, 2019.Mlok and Loong separately said PICE members are for diplomatic means of putting closure to the nagging Moro secessionist issue hounding southern Mindanao for five decades now.Mlok said only through cooperation among all sectors in the ARMM, the Muslims, Christians and Lumads, that lasting peace in the region can prevail.