EVEN IN HONGKONG, THE PEOPLE OF MLANG ARE UNITED!

The town of M’lang was a sleepy rice producing community when I became Mayor in 1995.

Things are changing quickly now, especially with the construction of the Central Mindanao Airport in Barangay Tawantawan, a major facility which is hoped to propel this once sleepy town to cityhood in five to six years.

While I was born in M’lang, I did not stay in the town as long as my brothers, especially our eldest Col. Pat who knows almost everybody in the town.

But I have always been proud of M’lang, my birthplace. In fact, even when I stayed so many years in Manila and other places, I remained a registered voter in Barangay Nueva Vida, where I cast my first vote.

While I now reside in Kidapawan City, I have decided to remain a registered voter in my original precinct in Nueva Vida and intend to remain there until I cast my last vote.

There is something that makes M’lang a bit different from other towns in the province. It is deeply conservative and very religious.

Perhaps, the conservatism is because of the fact that both the Catholic religion and the Protestants, especially the Southern Baptists, have a deep influence on the lives of the people.

It was in M’lang where the Christian renewal movement, SaMaria, was started. This was the local version of the Cursillo movement which swept the Catholic faithfuls in the 1970s.

The people of M’lang’s deep religious belief is one of the reasons why the Muslims in the town have always been protected even during the terror years of the Ilaga-Blackshirt conflict.

In fact in the barangay where I was born, Bialong, the Bantas family has remained in the midst of the Christians untouched during the conflict and loved by the community today to the point that the family is always represented in the barangay council.

Except for a few, the people of M’lang live in harmony and they seem to know everybody in the community.

They show up and gather for community activities in huge numbers as shown during the latest great event in the town, the M’lang Airport thanksgiving called the 1st Tulabong Festival where about 20,000 were present.

Yesterday, in Hongkong, the people of my town once again showed that unique feeling of kinship. Along with the workers from the city of Kidapawan and Kabacan, M’lang workers were among the big groups which attended yesterday’s forum on the Cotabato Overseas Workers Investments Forum.

As they gathered around me for a photo shoot, I felt the warmth of the people of my town and I felt the love that they have for me.

I am blessed and I thank God for the love and support of the people of M’lang.