From misguided Islamic militancy to mainstream literacy
BANGSAMORO NEWS UPDATES • 17:15 PM Fri Jul 12, 2019
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By:
John M. Unson
The former Abu Sayyaf members are now being reintegrated into the local communities. (John Unson)
ISABELA CITY --- Their lives were troubled with misguided Islamic militancy and so they changed for good to start again via mainstream literacy.
More than 40 erstwhile members of the feared Abu Sayyaf in Basilan on Thursday completed along with 500 others a government Alternative Learning System (ALS) program as part of their reintroduction into mainstream communities in the island province.
The now reforming former Abu Sayyaf bandits, mostly minors, were awarded with certificates of course completion during a graduation rite Thursday at the gymnasium of the Basilan State College in Isabela City.
They were among more than 200 Abu Sayyaf bandits in Basilan who surrendered in batches in the past three years through the joint intercession of Gov. Jim Salliman, the Western Mindanao Command and the governor then of the now defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Mujiv Hataman, now congressman in Basilan.
The Abu Sayyaf is using the flag of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria as revolutionary banner.
Among the graduates of the accelerated study course is Moton Indama, a former commander of the Abu Sayyaf.
Indama and his follower operated along seaside villages in Basilan, whose residents they subjected to collection of “protection money” on periodic basis.
He was one of the Abu Sayyaf members who surrendered in exchange for an assurance of free education to hasten their recovery and reintegration into mainstream society via the Program Against Violent Extremism, or PAVE, of the defunct ARMM government.
Besides the ALS of the education department, the ARMM government also provided livelihood, housing, health and social welfare support to the Abu Sayyaf bandits.
The PAVE program pioneered by Hataman, now representing Basilan to the House of Representatives, and Salliman, reelected second-termer Basilan governor, repeatedly hogged the news for securing the surrender through backchannel dialogues of more than 200 Abu Sayyaf members from between 2016 to 2018.
The ARMM was replaced last February with a Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao based on peace compacts reached during 22 years of talks between Malacañang and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.