Sulu mock village wins ARMM 25th anniv tribal village contest

COTABATO CITY -- The Sulu mock tribal village” here
depicting the oldest Southern Philippine Muslim civilization was voted as overall
champion in various cultural contests that
capped the month-long celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Autonomous
Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

The construction of the mock Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur,
Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi villages inside the 32-hectare compound of ARMM in
Cotabato City was one of the highlights of the 30-day anniversary festivities.

The designated chieftain of the Sulu village, Engineer Emil Sadain,
who is concurrent public works secretary of ARMM, received the P1 million cash
prize for the contest and a trophy from the region’s chief executive, Gov. Mujiv
Hataman, during a program here Friday night.

The Sulu village depicted the customs and traditions of the
Tausog people, their traditional day-to-day activities, their native cuisine, and
the governance practices of their sultans whose unbroken chain of rule started
as early as the 13th century.

In an emotional speech, Hataman, the eighth elected regional
governor of ARMM, said the organizers of the four other mock tribal villages
that failed to win the grand prize should not be saddened by their loss.

We must bear in mind that in the past 30 days we have shown that contrary to the perception of people in Visayas, in
Metro Manila and in Luzon, people in the autonomous region can co-exist for the
sake of peace and development, Hataman said.

Close to 30,000 local tourists visited the mock tribal villages from
November 18 to December 19 as indicated in guest registry books.

This could be our last anniversary celebration. Next year
there will be a transition from ARMM to the new Bangsamoro political entity,”
Hataman said.

He
said his administration is ready to turn over all the assets, regional
rank-and-file personnel and all savings in the ARMM’s coffer to the
Bangsamoro government.

The enabling measure for the replacement of the ARMM with a new
Bangsamoro self-governing entity, the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law, which is now
in Congress, is expected to be enacted into law by first quarter of 2015.

The mock village of Tawi-Tawi, which showcased the rich
cultures and traditions of ARMM’s Samah people, ranked second in the regional cultural
contests.

Industrial psychologist John Magno, assistant education
secretary of ARMM and designated chieftain of the Tawi-Tawi mock village, said
he is thankful to local officials and employees of the regional government who
hails from the island province for helping put up a typical fishing enclave
depicting their ethnic identity.

Hataman said this year’s celebration of the ARMM’s 25th
founding anniversary is also an advance thanksgiving feast in anticipation of
next year’s establishment of the Bangsamoro entity based on the government’s
final peace accord with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the March 27, 2014
Comprehensive agreement on Bangsamoro.

This early we are ready to turn over to the government and
the MILF a reformed ARMM, touted as a `failed experiment’ which this
administration managed to let function efficiently in the final three years of
its existence,” Hataman said.

Hataman said his administration had also succeeded in
correcting wrong notions on the disunity of ARMM’s Muslim, Christian and lumad
communities.

The mock tribal villages we ran in the past 30 days was a
good showcase of how these three groups in the region have been co-existing
peacefully,” he said. (JOHN UNSON)