A tragic failure

Recently a post on my Facebook wall attracted my attention. This post was actually a query on what happened to Lanao del Sur after the partition of the empire Province of Lanao in 1959 into Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte.  

 

Since the partition, the two Lanaos pursued their destiny separately. 

 

Lanao del Norte, with Iligan City as its “Queen City,” has moved with haste into modern society not only in ushering constituents into “modern life” but also in cultivating the land—working on them and making them yield plenty.  

 

On the other hand, its other half, Lanao del Sur, with Marawi as its “Queen City,” has stood still all these years and even deteriorated into ignominy as the land of “cheat” and everything that is “fake.”

 

This development is rather tragic, especially when viewed from the perspective that the Maranaos are known as one of the most enterprising ethnic groups in the land. Among the Islamized groups in the Philippines, they thrive not only in business but also in education and government services, particularly in the fields of taxes (BIR and Custom duties), accounting (COA), and in government procurement bureaucracies including the bid and awards boards. In short, you would easily find Maranaos in endeavors that involve financial transactions and exchanges.

 

The Maranaos are also known for brassware and wood carvings both in their original artistic designs (the famous naga or sarimanok art forms) but also in the production of “antiques.” For example, rightly or wrongly, the Tugaya municipality is known for its production of “originals” and “copies” depending on the financial capacity of the “buyers.”

 

Lanao del Sur also boasts of being the home of the Mindanao State University with 11 campuses all over Mindanao and with a huge budget and appropriation second only to the University of the Philippines. Yet, the province has been left way behind by its other half in almost everything. 

 

What happened in Lanao del Sur also happened in Maguindanao province. At the time of its original partition in 1966, Cotabato City and Maguindanao (also the entire North Cotabato) were far more developed than its other half, South Cotabato. Then the original North Cotabato was further subdivided into three provinces—Maguindanao, North Cotabato and Sultan Kuradat in 1972.  

 

The Maguindanao province is predominantly inhabited by the Maguindanaons while the Christian settlers are the dominant population in the two provinces of North Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat as in South Cotabato. Again as in the case of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao is very much left behind both in terms of progress and also in terms of all human development indicators.

 

Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, and the three island provinces of Badilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi are all components of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. These five provinces always figure in the 10 poorest provinces in the Republic. And when measured by human development index or HDI, they are also “tops” in terms of failures and inadequacies. In fact, in most places in the ARMM, the government bureaucracies and services stand weakest or simply dysfunctional including local government.

 

The ready answer given to this sad and tragic lot is the war condition that these provinces continue to endure. The other reason is anything that goes under the “generic” label—“injustice.” While their sister provinces or “daughter” provinces have grown by leaps and bounds, the mother provinces have stood still. The natural tendency is for their constituents to “migrate” elsewhere.  

 

The people who have gone to schools and college go to the big cities outside of ARMM or elsewhere or even abroad. In fact, the local leaders, including chief executives, maintain residences or “mansions” in Cotabato City, General Santos City, Iligan City, Cagayan de Oro City, Davao City and Zamboanga City. These are the cities in the Republic with so many resident mayors, vice mayors and other top government bureaucrats.

 

What truly ails these five provinces? Is it a simple answer of war conditions or the generic label of injustice? Is there something deeper in the people, especially leaders, that they are afraid to face? Is there a prevailing malaise in these five provinces that investment and money poured in terms of development and infrastructure go, simply, to nought? 

 

Unless this question is faced and confronted squarely and "boldly," there would be continued finger pointing on this tragic lot not only in terms of sufferings of the peoples of the ARMM but also on the neglect or abandonment of the land and its natural rich resources. No amount of finger pointing and rhetoric would hide the dismal failures of leadership and governance in these places. The stark contrast is too glaring for people to continue to ignore!