By ALI G. MACABALANG
August 28, 2010, 7:15pm
Muslim leaders across the country on Saturday took turns in hailing a proposal in Congress seeking to include Moro history, culture, and identity in school curriculum taught in levels in both public and private schools.
Datu Ansaruddin Alonto-Adiong, acting governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), said he was “very elated” with the filing of House Bill (HB) 270 by Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara, saying the conception of the proposal alone meant much in the promotion of national unity, especially among Muslims and Christians.
“It took a non-Muslim to think about and push for it. We are very elated about it because it signified an added momentum to the age-old campaign for Muslim-Christian harmony and understanding,” Adiong said, referring to Angara.
Adiong said leaders and ordinary constituents of ARMM and its component provinces of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi, and the cities of Lamitan and Marawi would “surely welcome” the proposal.
According to Bai Omera Dianalan-Lucman, chief executive officer and secretary of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF), the “good news” about the proposal of Angara spread like wildfire among Muslim communities in the country.
Under HB 270, Angara proposes for the Department of Education (DepEd) to open and maintain a subject on Moro history, culture, and identity in all levels in both public and private schools across the country.
Published reports said Angara drafted the bill with a hope for other Filipinos to appreciate the history, culture, and identity of the Moro people in pursuit of initiatives geared towards resolving the age-old Mindanao problem.
Angara said his bill proposes for regular programs and special projects that will provide venues for information and discussion of Moro history, culture, and identity including the utilization of informal education and other means to stress their importance.
“An effort of Christians and Muslims alike to improve understanding and appreciation of each other’s historical, social, and cultural values is the cornerstone of the edifice of peace that each Mindanaoan – Christian or Muslim – must build,” Angara said.
“We may have our differences but we have more in common, on top of which, is the clamor for peace,” he added.
Citing a foreign institution’s recent research report, Muslim scholars said the inclusion of Moro history, culture, and identity in school curriculum would be “highly significant” in Metro Manila where “two out of 50 Christians” allegedly harbor strong biases against Muslims.
They pointed to the stereotyped campaign of the Spanish colonization era that isolated Muslim Filipinos under its teaching that “only a dead Moro is a good Moro.”
“Providing a room for understanding about Moro in schools would erode the divisive effects of such stereotyped message among new Filipino generations,” Dr. Macapado Muslim, president of the Mindanao State University (MSU), said.
http://www.mb.com.ph/node/274588/bill-infu
