ARMM to construct six peace and training centers for women

COTABATO
CITY - While its days are numbered because of the impending birth of a new political entity n Muslim Mindanao, just the same officials of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao will set peace training centers aimed at continuously empowering women.The six centers, one for each five component provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi and another in Cotabato City as host city, are intended to cater to all the women in the region, especially
those affected by conflict and other related issues. It will provide
various materials on gender and development and can serve as safe house
for victims of violence against women. Lawyer
Laisa Alamia, ARMM executive secretary, said the women peace center was also aimed not only to provide capacity building on gender and development
but to also to train women to be economically empowered. We need to capacitate and train women to go beyond poverty level,” Alamia said in a statement released Friday by the ARMM Bureau of Public Information.All
six centers will be funded by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on
the Peace Process (OPAPP) with other forms of assistance from ARMM’s
Regional Commission on Bangsamoro Women (RCBW) and Department of Public
Works and Highways. It
is in line with the government’s Localizing the National Action Plan
(LNAP) on women, peace and security program in the ARMM, which targets
to bring national programs to grassroots level, especially in
conflict-affected areas. By early next year, Sittie Jehan Mutin, RCBW-ARMM chairperson, said the six women peace centers will be completed and operational. Earlier
today, officials from ARMM led by Regional Vice-Governor Haroun
Al-Rashid Lucman, Alamia, DPWH Secretary Emil
Sadain and Chairperson Mutin conducted an ocular inspection of the
ongoing construction of the P11 million-worth peace and training center
at the ARMM compound in Cotabato City.