Mangudadatu stresses value of education to achieve unity, peace

BULUAN, Maguindanao – The socio-cultural and religious diversity among Filipinos can translate to “unity with mutual understanding, respect, peace and justice” only through the acquisition of “proper education” in innovative systems, in and outside classrooms.

This was underscored by Maguindanao Gov. Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu underscored in an interview with The Manila Bulletin at the sidelines of the Christmas party his office hosted here last Wednesday for Mindanao-based reporters covering events and activities this province.

“There can be no national unity in the real sense when Filipinos harbor biases against one another. Biases, notably those engrained in the minds of many Filipinos in colonial and neo-colonial eras, have spawned injustices towards the minority Moro or Muslim community,” Mangudadatu said.

He believed that colonial imperialists’ “divide-and-rule” schemes stereotyping the “ill-motivated” adage that “only dead Moro is a good Moro” have brought about adverse impacts on the current socio-political makeup of Muslim Filipinos.

“Many of us, Moro people, have developed hatred in return, resorting to armed rebellion to dramatize quest for justice from government regimes ran by politicians reeking with colonial mentality, Mangudadatu said.

“The colonial divide-and-rule scheme had also evolved among some Moro political families, who played politics as an instrument to dominate weak sectors, to the extent of taking lives, not as an avenue to enhance peaceful coexistence for good governance,” the governor said empathically in mixed Pilipino and local vernacular.

In his brief remarks at Wednesday’s thanksgiving party here, Mangudadatu thanked the media for helping propagate his administration’s thrusts and policies for reforms meant to bring Maguindanao to greater heights.

Through media reports, he said, national and foreign entities have taken cognizance of his administration’s innovative MagPEACE (Maguindanao Program on Education Assistance and Community Empowerment).