January 17, 2025

Emmanuel "Manny" F. Piñol

Official Website

Arms To Farms’: Transforming Fighters Into Food Producers

Manny Piñol September 10, 2024 2 min read

“Arms To Farms” is not my original battle cry.
It was Mayor Rommel Arnaldo of Kolambugan, Lanao Norte who coined the phrase but I am adopting it because it is the right strategy to institutionalize peace building coupled with food security.
Our first model “Arms To Farms” Project is Camp Ibrahim Sema, a 5,000-hectare area which extends from the lowlands of Datu Odin Sinsuat to the hills of the town where wild pigs still thrive.
It was former Congresswoman Bai Sandra Sema who brought me to the area because part of it is her ancestral village, Benolen, where the great Sinsuat Patriarch, Datu Odin, once held power.
Camp Ibrahim Sema was where, as a young journalist working for the Philippine News Agency, I interviewed Commander Muslimen Sema, brother of Ibrahim Sema who was slain in battle against government forces.
Mus Sema, who is now Chairman of an MNLF wing (the other is Chairman Nur Misuari) later became Mayor of Cotabato City and is now Labor and Employment Minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
We conducted a drone mapping of the area and then established a Demonstration Farm for Sorghum and Soybeans to determine the viability of the two crops in the area.
The ultimate target is to turn former rebels and their families into Cattle Farmers to produce Halal Beef which is in great demand in the only Muslim Region of the country.
Yesterday, I visited the Demo Farm 48 days after we planted the first Sorghum and Soybeans in the area and judging by the growth of both crops, I was convinced that we have found the correct formula in starting the transformation of the former rebel camp into a Food Production Zone where former combatants join us in the fight against hunger.
This, I believe, is the best way to institutionalize Peace Programs because I believe that Peace starts in a family which have food on the table three times a day.

#armstofarmsprogram!
#PeaceStartsWithFullStomach!
(Video by retired Police Sergeant Arnold Vido, Braveheart Farms.)

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