GENERAL SANTOS CITY -- The Government of the Philippines - Moro National Liberation Front (GPH-MNLF) Coordinating Committee’s Community Healing and Reconciliation Subcommittee held its first meeting here from March 25 to 26 as part of the body’s efforts to heal the emotional wounds caused by armed conflict.
Brig. Gen. (Ret) Buenaventura Pascual, co-chair of the GPH Coordinating Committee’s Community Healing and Reconciliation Subcommittee, said the meeting “is a necessary step to pursue our efforts to healing and reconciliation. Although it is going to be a long journey, I commit myself to still be here whenever the committee needs my service."
Uttoh Salem Cutan, chair of the MNLF Coordinating Committee, in his message said: ”We, the [members] of the MNLF panel, [are] very thankful to be with you for the purpose of finding solution[s] for community healing and possible reconciliation.”
This was affirmed by Community Healing and Reconciliation Sub-committee co-chair Alexis Malna who said in her commitment message that she “will work hard to support the subcommittee for the future of the Bangsamoro Nation.”
The meeting aimed to identify the expectations of each member of the subcommittee and other participants; to level-off on their understanding of the Community Healing and Reconciliation Program; explore ways on how the parties can fully utilize their resources; and identify immediate courses of action.
The subcommittee also identified its key objectives which include psychosocial healing (counseling, grief management, therapy); truth-telling and listening process with survivors and victims of violence from the war; remembrance and commemoration of incidents of historical importance; education and correcting narratives about Moros and including Muslim heroes in text books; and rehabilitation of communities through the delivery of socio-economic interventions.
The GPH-MNLF Community Healing and Reconciliation Program Framework is expected to be finalized within the year.
According to OPAPRU Director Jana Gallardo, Head Secretariat for the Community Healing and Reconciliation Subcommittee, consultations with stakeholders on the framework will be held by May 2022, which will then be submitted to the GPH-MNLF Coordinating Committee for approval by June 2022.
This meeting was also participated in by MNLF Community Healing and Reconciliation Subcommittee Co-Chair Alexis Malna; Salip Aloy Jainal, deputy chair of the MNLF Community Healing and Reconciliation Subcommittee; and MNLF members Michael Odin, Alvin Benito, Alphata Untih and Hji Nur Abdul, as well as Dong Anayatin and Virgilio Mazo of the MNLF Secretariat. (OPAPRU)
