Eid’l Fit’r rites in Central Mindanao, BARMM solemn, peaceful

April 10, 2024 | 4:15pm

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Local executives took turns urging Muslims to vigorously sustain their spiritual solidarity with non-Muslims at the sideline of the Eid’l Fit’r congregational outdoor prayers on Wednesday in different areas in Central Mindanao and in the Bangsamoro region.

The obligatory prayer rites marked the end of Ramadan, a holy month in Islam, where Muslims fast from dawn to dusk for 28-29 days as a religious obligation and to inculcate among them the importance of self-restraint to achieve spiritual perfection.

Major Gen. Alex Rillera, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, and  Bangsamoro regional police director Brig. Gen. Prexy Tanggawohn separately told reporters on Wednesday afternoon that the Eid rites in areas under their jurisdiction were peaceful, organized with the support of local government units, some under mayors who are Christians.

During the Eid gatherings, Muslim leaders and Islamic theologians in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and in Region 12 called on their constituents, through reporters, to continue supporting the multi-sector cultural and religious-solidarity programs of their LGUs complementing the peace overture of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and the southern Moro communities.

“Islam has very extensive teachings on religious tolerance and about the obligation of every Muslim to be in peace with people with different religions. That should encourage us to be instruments of religious solidarity,” said Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr., a Maranao, who has no fewer than 100,000 Christian constituents.

Some Christian local executives have set a precedent on Wednesday by reaching out to Muslims in designated Eid’l Fit’r worship sites, distributing food and bottled water as offerings.

Rillera and Cotabato’s provincial police director, Col. Gilbert Tuzon, separately told reporters that many Christian LGU officials, among them Mayor Rolly Sacdalan and Evangeline Guzman of Midsayap and Kabacan towns in Cotabato province, respectively, even helped the military and police plan out security contingencies for Wednesday morning’s Eid events in their municipalities.

Muslim officials in the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region said they also appreciate the distribution in mosques of food and drinks for iftar, the first meal after a day-long fast, during the Ramadan by the LGU of Lamitan City in Basilan.

The mayor of Lamitan City, Roderick Furigay, a Christian, is the only non-Muslim mayor in BARMM whose office has subsidies for clerics managing mosques in all of the 45 barangays under its jurisdiction.

“We in Basilan are keen on fostering religious unity among local Muslim and Christian communities. It is for that unity that we have driven out Abu Sayyaf terrorists from our province. We now have peace here, courtesy of our Muslim and Christian communities,” Gov. Hadjiman Salliman, chairperson of the multi-sector Basilan Peace and Order Council, said.

Many erstwhile non-Muslims who have embraced Islam in recent years, among them active members of the Philippine National Police and personnel of units of 6th ID, attended the Eid congregational ceremony at a mosque in Camp Siongco in Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao del Norte, organized by Rillera and their Islamic preacher, Captain Alinair Guro, who hails from Lanao del Sur. 

Tanggawohn, who assumed as police director of BARMM only last week, said he shall embark on projects, along with the six provincial police offices in the autonomous region, that can help maintain cordiality among the local Muslim, Christian and non-Moro indigenous communities.