Norwegian envoys visits Basilan, first ever in history of the province

COTABATO CITY - A Norwegian envoy was in Basilan Wednesday for a peace dialogue with provincial officials struggling to sustain the image now of the province as the new investment frontier in the Bangsamoro region.

Ambassador Bjorn Staurset Jahnsen was accompanied to Isabela City in Basilan by subordinate-diplomats assigned in their embassy in Metro Manila.

Basilan Gov. Jim Salliman said Thursday they were so honored with the visit of Jahnsen.

“For us, it was again a tacit proof that there is peace now in the province, pestered for decades by the Abu Sayyaf terror group whose presence faded dramatically with the surrender of more than 200 local members in very recent years,” Salliman said.

Wednesday’s cross-section peace-building dialogue in Isabela City, dubbed “Sustaining Peace, Preparing Basilan’s Future,” was a joint initiative of the Norwegian government, the International Office on Migration and the office of Salliman.

It was the Norwegian embassy’s first ever engagement in the island province in support of the peace and reconciliation efforts of the Salliman administration.

The provincial government and the office of Deputy Speaker Mujiv Hataman, lone congressional representative of the province, had worked out the surrender in the past three years of more than 200 Abu Sayyaf members in Basilan via their local Program Against Violent Extremism, or PAVE.

The PAVE is being supported extensively by Muslim and Christian religious leaders in Basilan, the military’s Western Mindanao Command and the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region.

Salliman said the involvement of Norwegian government officials in Wednesday’s peace dialogue will boost the confidence of foreign investors on Basilan’s business climate.

Ranking dignitaries from Spain, representing the Agency for International Development Cooperation-Embassy of Spain, most known as the AECID, also toured Basilan last December.

Their purpose was to inspect peace-building projects the AECID is implementing along with Salliman’s office, the Cotabato City-based Institute for Autonomy and Governance and other non-government organizations, among them a group led by Spanish Priest Angel Calvo of the Claretian congregation.

“We are so thankful to these foreign benefactors. Surely these dignitaries would not come over if they don’t feel it is safe for them to come and roam around,” Salliman said.

He said they are trying to connect the provincial government with more foreign benefactors that can help them push their local peace and development efforts forward.