By John Unson (The Philippine Star) July 9, 2013
MAGUINDANAO , Philippines – Central Mindanao’s Muslim communities begin observing the month-long Ramadan today or tomorrow – depending on the sighting of the new moon – even as apprehensions over another rampage by the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) prevail.
Fasting from dawn to dusk during the Ramadan, which lasts for one lunar cycle or from 28 to 29 days, is obligatory for physically fit Muslims.
Muslims consider fasting a means of strengthening “self-restraint” to achieve spiritual perfection. Warfare, except in defense of land, race and religion, is strictly prohibited during Ramadan, Islam’s holiest month.
“We need to offer special prayers for lasting peace in our homeland during this Ramadan,” said Ustadz Esmael Ebrahim, a commissioner in the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos.
Observing the Ramadan is one of the so-called “five pillars” of the Islamic faith, which include absolute belief in Allah, praying five times a day facing Mecca, joining the pilgrimage or Hajj to Mecca, Saudi Arabia at least once in a lifetime, and giving of “zakat,” or alms to the poor.
Watching the new moon appear after the last day of Shaban, the month before the Ramadan, is a centuries-old practice that contemporary scholars perform until today, despite the technological advancements on how to determine variances in the lunar cycles and sea tides.
Muslims greet the sighting of the new moon with takbir or chant of Allahu akbar, which is Arabic for “Allah is great.”
Security has been tight in Maguindanao and surrounding provinces since July 1.
Units of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division have been deployed in strategic areas in the province, whose residents were terrorized by the BIFF during last year’s Ramadan season. The BIFF rampage displaced more than 20,000 families.
Moderate Sunni Muslims in Mindanao find annoying the extreme interpretation of the Qur’an by leaders of the BIFF, many of them graduates of Islamic schools in the Middle East and Pakistan.
“Ramadan is a time for reconciliation, offering of gifts to the poor and the needy, regardless of faith and racial identities, and most importantly, a season for doing reparations for wrong deeds,” a Yakan Imam Amir Jalain told The STAR.
Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Mujiv Hataman said the ARMM government would allow its Muslim rank-and-file personnel to leave their offices before 4 p.m. every day during Ramadan so they could prepare their bukah or first meal after a day-long fast.
“But all of us should report to work at 7:30 a.m. daily and continue working during lunch break during the Ramadan weekdays,” Hataman said.
The ARMM’s Office of the Regional Governor and the regional tourism department are to open on Wednesday a nighttime 30-day trade fair inside the 32-hectare regional government compound in Cotabato City, where fasting Muslims can buy native delicacies and drinks at affordable prices.
ARMM, encompassing Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, and the cities of Lamitan and Marawi, is home to more than two million Muslims.
Mimbalawag Mangutara, chief of the Office of Regional Governor’s budget division, said even the thought of harming someone during Ramadan is unacceptable.
“And that should be the rule in all days in the life of a true Muslim, whether it is Ramadan or not. In Islam, even just the mere thought of harming someone is already like harming the whole of humanity,” Mangutara said.
Fasting, as a sacrifice, can also be used as prayer petition, such as for lasting peace in Maguindanao, according to Mangutara.
Hataman said he has directed ARMM’s police director, Chief Superintendent Noel delos Reyes, to give Muslim policemen lighter duties during the Ramadan to enable them to fast at daytime and perform their obligatory tarawi or nighttime prayers for the whole month.
“They can offset that with more vigorous duties in December, when our Christian policemen and policewomen will observe Christmas and New Year’s Day,” Hataman pointed out.
Ramadan in squalor
For families displaced by violence, Ramadan is likely to be observed again in squalid evacuation centers.
Seen to confound the plight of the evacuees is possible flooding in the area as rivers swell due to heavy rains in the uplands of Maguindanao and North Cotabato.
Moreover, chances of renewed violence between BIFF forces and government troopers are still high.
Major Gen. Romeo Gapuz, commander of the Army’s 6th ID, said that while guns have been silent since Sunday, soldiers remain on alert for possible BIFF retaliation.
Local officials have confirmed that the BIFF suffered 18 fatalities.
An Army officer, 1Lt. Gerald Flores, and five enlisted soldiers were killed in the encounters, which ended only when the bandits ran out of ammunition and fled, bringing with them their dead and wounded companions.
The hostilities erupted when the bandits set off landmines and opened fire on soldiers dispatched to verify the presence of BIFF members collecting protection money from villagers.
Gapuz said several villagers were wounded when they were caught in the crossfire. Many of them were brought to the Cotabato Regional Medical Center in Cotabato City.
The municipal disaster risk reduction and management councils in Maguindanao’s Saidona and Datu Piang towns identified the injured villagers as Alimundo Guntong, 45, and his 42-year-old spouse, Amina; Diding Dalimbang, 35; Ugalingan Kamid, 45; Fatima Mamukung, 28 and her children, two-year-old Babaykung, and four-year-old Bukukuy.
The BIFF, organized in 2011 by former Moro Islamic Liberation Front commander and Saudi-trained cleric Ameril Umbra Kato, is known for using innocent villagers as human shields to escape pursuing troopers.
Maguindanao police chief Senior Superintendent Rudelio Jocson said the main highway remains open despite last Saturday’s violence.
But Jocson said police units are guarding portions of the Cotabato-General Santos City Highway near the towns of Datu Saudi and Datu Unsay, which the bandits had occupied during their five-day rampage in August last year. – With Helen Flores
(Photo credit: This file photo downloaded from the mindanews website shows civilians fleeing the conflict.)
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