Wednesday, April 11, 2007 Moro group hails US-funded Mindanao development programs
THE Moro Islamic Liberation Front hailed last week the United States for extending a program particularly concerned on the development of Mindanao.
Recently, the United States Agency for International Development (USAid) announced it will extend for another five years the Growth with Equity in Mindanao (GEM) project.
Jun Mantawil, chair of the MILF peace panel secretariat, appealed to the American government to coordinate the implementation of the projects with the Moro rebels.
He urged the United States to implement the extended program in support of the peace process between the MILF and the Philippine government.
"The MILF is not anti-development but sees to it that whatever economic aid (poured) to Mindanao will not redound to counter-insurgency tool that undermines the struggle of the Bangsamoro people for right to self-determination and freedom," he said in a statement.
"We can prevent this problem by either these projects relating strongly with the MILF's Bangsamoro Development Agency (BDA) or the MILF itself," he added.
In recent months, the US government through its embassy or USAid officials in Manila has shown increasing coordination with the MILF.
Several of their officials have already visited the MILF to discuss multilateral issues including development in conflict-affected areas in Mindanao especially where the MILF is very active.
With GEM's extension, the United States pledged an aid worth between $125 million to $145 million (roughly P7.1 billion) to further spur development in the island.
Raymond L. Edler, USAid supervisory regional contracting officers, said they are looking for a contractor to implement the program across Mindanao.
Interested contractors are given until April 27 to submit their proposals for GEM's phase 3 program.
The extended program will focus on infrastructure development, with each project cost in the barangay level pegged between $5,000 to $50,000, Edler said.
Regional impact projects will have construction cost exceeding $50,000 up to $4 million, he added.
The GEM Phase 2 program, which focused on livelihood development, is winding up this year. Its contractor is Louis Berger Group Phils., Inc.
Aside from the basic contract of up to $145 million, the new five-year program is allocating $12 million to $16 million for optional components.
The GEM program has been USAid's "flagship" activity in Mindanao since 1996, USAid said.
It is the largest and best known of all the various USAid programs and activities in Mindanao. It is an "umbrella" program under which USAid is able to support a wide range of different activities in Mindanao, all intended to contribute to peace and development in Mindanao.
Initially conceived as a five-year program which would run from 1996 through 2001, USAid subsequently decided that the GEM program was such a useful and effective effort that it would continue the program through to the end of 2007.
At this point, because the GEM program has continued to be useful and effective, USAid has decided to support a GEM-3 program, Edler said.
A few years ago, US President George W. Bush committed $30 million aid for Mindanao once the government and the MILF forge a final peace deal.
Peace negotiation between the government and the MILF, however, is stalled by the contentious ancestral domain agenda wherein the Moro rebels insisted for a territory.
