Pigcawayan, MILF infighting also erupted; town mayor intervenes

PIGCAWAYAN, North Cotabato –More soldiers have been deployed in Barangay Simsiman here to prevent the escalation after hostilities erupted between warring two Moro groups who belonged to Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) 105th base command.

Army Captain Jonas Cañete, 92nd Infantry Battalion Alpha company commander, told DXMS Radyo Bida that the firefight between the group of Sammy Usman and Noro Amir Abdulsalam Eson, started Monday evening at the center of the Barangay that forced dozens of civilians fleeing to safer grounds.

Cañete joined the team of Pigcawayan Mayor Juanito Agustin on Wednesday who stepped in to help resolve the conflict and had spoken to the two leaders of warring groups to prevent the escalation of the firefight into neighboring barangays.

In a facebook video, Mayor Agustin has expressed concern over the safety of civilians. He also appealed to the two Moro groups for a dialogue to settle the conflict.

Barangay Simsiman is now part of the Special Geographic Area of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (SGA-BARMM).

Agustin clarified that he intervened to prevent the spillover to other barangays in Pigcawayan.

Captain Cañete added that during the initial dialogue, both sides agreed to refrain from carrying or displaying firearms while roaming around the community.

Agustin also said that he will sit next week with the BARMM Government to jointly resolve the conflict in the Barangay.

Meanwhile, displaced families had received relief assistance from BARMM Government through Ministry of Social Services and Development (MSSD). Mark Anthony Tayco

COTABATO City's Al-Nor Commercial Complex is expanding exponentially from its business nucleus of well-furnished hotel rooms, fine dining, franchised coffee shops, a convention center, native and oriental food places, and movie houses.

The couple owners are pushing through with a gargantuan expansion program, initially by the on-going construction of an eight-layer hotel building extending southwest of its current Two-Star hotel accommodation facilities.

In another site, the expansion potentially covers some 260 units of condominium-type apartments on an erstwhile Episcopal Church estate in 23-levels, northeast of the Al-Nor Complex’s exit gate from the city’s Robinson’s branch, along Sinsuat Avenue.

Owner Hadji Kahar Nul, a former overseas Filipino worker in Saudi Arabia, said an on-going expansion southwest of the complex’s entrance gate translates to 216 furnished hotel rooms which will be open for billeting reservations and accommodation by mid2023 in all the first six-floor levels.

The extension stands on a 2,000 square-meter northeast adjacent area from its main one-hectare commercial complex.

Before 2024, all new 112 rooms will be fully furnished-open for business in two more levels up of the on-going construction, in addition to the current 164 hotel rooms that are often fully-booked to visiting tourists, mostly foreigners, professionals involved in peace programs.

With the current rate of P 11,000 – P 12,000.00 per square-meter of conservative development estimates, the construction can cost way above P200 million for the hotel expansion with two levels of convention halls.

But no, there could be a lot more to spend on materials, ocean freight and delivery costs, as the owners said they are importing the finishing construction materials, the marble tiles from Singapore and the veneer plane plywood sheets from another country.

Nul said creditor banks financing the construction that had been stalled by the past pandemic had offered financial reprieve to most clients in consideration of that unforeseen period that inevitably caused much delays, and which he and his wife as conjugal owners, had availed

But still they did not cease fulfilling loan repayment remittances. “That’s the secret of trust. Pay religiously even in times of severe crisis,” he said.

Nul’s Advice to Moros

Moros in general, Nul says, are fond of securing financial loans for “dead investments” like brand new vehicles. The more one gets used to putting risks on dead investment the least he is able to regain financial stability from losses, he confides.

But Moros, he says, should venture more of the bank trust loans into income generating, selfsustaining business that generates employments as well. The Al-Nor Commercial Complex in conjugal proprietorship has at least 1,200 personnel in its weekly and monthly payrolls from hotel personnel to franchisedshops employees and construction workers.

Hadji Kahar Nul had been an OFW with natural preference for entrepreneurship in his early professional life, with most of his employment period spent in Saudi Arabia where he ran an eatery for fellow Filipino workers. The usual local courses for goat meat, including “papaitan, kaldereta, sinina,” are often the meat preparation missed a lot in a foreign land, being in his menu. Nash B. Maulana

The campaign, which is set to run from May 2-31, 2023, will involve vaccinating children aged 0-59 months against measles and giving them oral polio vaccines.

“I call on all community leaders and other stakeholders across the region to work hand in hand with MOH health frontliners to ensure the health and wellbeing of children in the region and contribute to the country’s efforts to eliminate measles and rubella and eradicate polio.”