COTABATO CITY - The regional government in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) has distributed several hand tractors to internally displaced people (IDPs) in strife-torn areas as one way of enticing evacuees to return to their homes and start living normal and productive lives anew.
In the latest leg of distribution ceremonies here Tuesday, ARMM regional executive secretary Atty. Naguib Sinarimbo said the farm implements dispersal is part of their "early recovery program" aimed at shifting from their relief operations which they had been conducting since 2008. Sinarimbo said this new policy encourages thousands of evacuees, still staying in several evacuation centers in Maguindanao, to return to their homes they left when armed conflict broke out in 2008 between Moro Islamic Liberation Front and military forces over the nullification of a deal on ancestral domain. The ARMM distributed 26 more hand tractors last Tuesday. (Ali G. Macabalang
