PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo underscored Thursday the importance of cooperatives in bringing lasting peace and development, especially in the conflict areas of Mindanao.

"Especially in Mindanao, development must come hand in hand with peace because the problem is rooted in economic exclusion," President Arroyo told over a thousand participants and delegates to the First Mindanao Cooperative Peace Forum at Xavier University Gymnasium here in Cagayan de Oro.

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The President said the occasion was historic because "the spirit of cooperativism is channeled through development," noting there is a lack of opportunities in ethnic communities due of the armed conflict in Southern Philippines.

The President noted that in Northern Mindanao Region, some 40 cooperatives of Lumads and 15 cooperatives of Muslims, including cooperatives of former Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) combatants, are now engaged in community-based forest management agreements with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

The President informed delegates that government has been integrating the programs of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the Department of Health (DOH), and other anti-poverty agencies into a National Social Welfare Program to protect the poorest from the impact of global economic crisis and to help those whose earnings are limited by illness, disability, loss of job or age.

The President added that during her administration, an unprecedented P150 billion has been released for micro-credit and has reached micro-entrepreneurs through cooperatives.

During the program, chairpersons of Mindanao's Regional Cooperative Development Councils (RCDCs) presented to the Chief Executive the Mindanao Cooperative Peace Declaration, a document geared towards sustainable socio-economic transformation and development within the region.

The RCDC chairpersons were Rosalino Sumile of RCDC-9; Isidro Lico, RDCD-10; Carmelina Francia, RCDC-11; Arthur A. Aller, RCDC-12; Francis Loque, RCDC-13; and Administrator Sammy Ibrahim, Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

The President also conferred the Cooperative Lifetime Achievement Awards to lawyer Mordino Cua and Professor Edna Aberilla, and Posthumous Awards to Marieto Ga and Representative Guillermo Cua.

Special citations were, likewise, presented to ABCA administrator Soc Anthony Del Rosario, and Police Superintendent Benito Olea Ramos, training director of the Philippine Public Safety College, Regional Training School, (PPSC-RTS), and Northern Mindanao Region.

On her way to Cagayan de Oro City Airport, the President dropped by at the
Provincial Capitol grounds and joined the children in the culmination of
Misamis Oriental Universal Children's Month Celebration.

At the airport, she awarded ancestral domain titles to Higaonon tribe from a remote village in Claveria, Misamis Oriental.

The distribution of the land titles coincided with the commemoration of the 12th anniversary celebration of Indigenous Peoples Right Act (IPRA).

Certificates of Ancestral Domain Titles (CADT) to village chiefs representing the Higaonon tribe of Barangay Minalwang in Claveria, covering an area of 18,028 hectares. Some 1,816 individuals stand to benefit from the CADT.

Higaonon leaders Datu Amumahan Pina-andil, Datu, received the CADTs
Ditumbagan Bio, Datu Dikno Mansumagan and Datu Maagsug Pina-ander.

Datu's Pina-andil and Bio thanked the President for the CADTs, saying the future for the next generation of the tribe is now secure.

The President also ordered Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral to bring the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) to Barangay Minalwang.

Secretary Cabral said the President for the next 300,000 family beneficiaries of 4Ps the Higaonon tribe is included in their list as recipient.

The Higaonon tribe of Minalwang applied for Certificate of Ancestral Domain
Claim (CADC-114) on Oct. 21, 1997 and awarded by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

After years of waiting, the CADC was converted into CADT-084 through the
National Commission for Indigenous People (NCIP), which covers 18,028 hectares in Barangay Minalwang, Claveria town, portions of Barangays Hindangon and Eureka in Gingoog City, portions in the towns of Malitbog and Impasug-ong in Bukidnon, and portions of Barangay Guibunon in the municipality of Esperanza, Agusan Del Sur. (Sun.Star/OPS-PIA)