December 18, 2000, The Philippine Star, ARMM sectors decry absence of Nur led Ramadan festivities,

December 18, 2000, The Philippine Star, ARMM sectors decry absence of Nur led Ramadan festivities,

COTABATO CITY — For two years now, the office of Gov. Nur Misuari of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) has not been keen on organizing festivities during the Ramadan, thus some sectors have doubted if his administration really intends to promote religious and cultural solidarity in the region. 

Unlike his predecessors, former ARMM governors Zacaria Candao and Lininding Pangandaman, Misuari has never spearheaded religious and cultural activities during the Ramadan at the 32-hectare regional government compound here. 

"How can we have these supposedly traditional festivities if our governor is not even around to lead us and not showing any interest at all," said a senior technical staffer at the governor's office. During Pangandaman's stint from 1993 to 1996, the rank and file of various devolved agencies and support offices in the region actively participated in nightly Qur'an readings and group prayers inside the ARMM compound. 

"We broke our day-long fast in the ARMM compound and then held meetings and prayed together," said Sultan Metalicop Unda, former ARMM natural resources secretary. Pangandaman settled a total of 78 bloody clan wars involving powerful Muslim families during the Ramadan in his three- year tenure. 

Dexter Gubar, a former key staffer of the ARMM's health department, said Ramadan festivities then were aimed at uniting political and traditional leaders in the region by involving them in religious activities during the  month of fasting. Sources from Misuari's office said their only consolation this Ramadan season is the reduction of their working hours to allow them to go home early and prepare for their buka, or first meal at sunset, and their nightly individual prayers. 

Some casual employees in ARMM agencies, including Misuari's office, have yet to receive their salaries for two months, thus they can hardly prepare decent meals they are supposed to partake of at dusk and at dawn, the only times they can eat food. During the Ramadan, Muslims abstain from food, drink and sex during the day for one lunar cycle, or 30 days, as part of their five basic religious obligations, which also include belief in Allah, going at least once in a lifetime to Mecca for the Hajj, giving of zakat or alms to the poor, and praying five times a day facing the west. 

"We are confused. We have doubts as to the inclinations of the administration of Gov. Misuari. Public governance and religion are supposed to be one in Islam and yet we don't see him combining religion and public service in performing his functions as governor of ARMM," a senior staffer at the governor's office said. 

Worse, some sources in the ARMM said many of the region's nearly 20,000 employees are unaware of Misuari's whereabouts at present, except having heard that he left for the Middle East two months ago to attend a meeting of the Organization of Islamic Conference. For months now, telephone lines in Misuari's liaison office in Manila have all been disconnected for failure to pay huge bills. "The liaison office is virtually out of touch with the outside world now," said a source from the ARMM's local government department.