Into the fold,

According to its website, the World Bank has five active projects specifically for Mindanao. These include the three Multidonor Facility - PH Mindanao Reconstruction & Development cumulatively worth $19.31 million, the $ 663.9- million Philippines National Community Driven Development Program, and the $664.59-million Philippine Rural Development Project.

Moreover, given Mindanao’s development opportunities, the ADB, in a Country Partnership Strategy Validation report, recommended that it establish a local presence in the region to deepen its interaction with local authorities there.

“The reason for that recommendation is to be there, to work with them, and the response should be real time,” said Mr. Balbosa.

“The devil is really in the details,” he added.

ADB officials said that close interaction with local governments — which they said are usually ran by rivaling clans — should contribute to the peace process in Mindanao.

“So the more we can build up effective government services, effective delivery services, facilitate the growth, I think that makes a huge contribution to the peace side of things,” said Mr. Bolt.

The World Bank said that it has seen this community-driven development approach to be “extremely successful and very popular” based on its Mindanao Trust Fund (MTF).

The MTF brings local institutions to work with the Bangsamoro Development Agency (BDA), the development

arm of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, to deliver their own programs.

“This kind of process itself helps a community build peace, working together for the benefit of the community as a whole. These are the kind of communities we see that contribute very much to peacebuilding, making those decisions themselves, working together,” said World Bank’s Ms. Warwick.

As of September 2016, half a million people in 225 villages have benefited from 379 completed sub-projects under the MTF, World Bank data show.

Still, those efforts should be parallel with the government’s push for the peace process.

“This is very critical. Without peace, it will be extremely difficult, if not impossible for Mindanao to reach its potential. So we not only encourage the government, but also the Congress to really focus on passing the Bangsamoro Basic Law, and moving the process forward and then providing support in the peace agreements to really settle many of those issues to start the normalization process,” said Ms. Warwick.