Mindanaotoday.com | Arakan: ‘A beacon of hope and prosperity’
By: Pvt. Ian Dominic Abrio (Inf), PA
IN the northernmost part of the rich and diversified province of North Cotabato lies the last frontier of Arakan, a municipality prolific in natural and mineral deposits.
With a culture and history engraved by valorous and dauntless ethno-linguistic tribes, this northernmost rim held their ground and became what is now known as the 17th town of North Cotabato.
Arakan is a first-class agriculture-based municipality – endowed with rich potentials and a significant agri-industrial producer, as well as a leading premier of eco-tourism destination.
Comprising of great abundance and potential for further developmental prospects, the municipality indeed is a haven for settlers and indigenous individuals.
With various promises that the land of Arakan can offer, one cannot help but admire its rise to glory, yet with every possibility comes a lingering challenge.
In an unfortunate circumstance, the people of Arakan have long been plagued by the barbarity of the communist terrorist group – NPA or more inhumanely known as the New People’s Army. Their influence spread throughout the land like wildfire, engulfing every living being that it comes into contact with.
The bestiality and wickedness brought by the NPA terrorist group affected numerous agricultural and industrial sources of income in the community. Their sickness afflicted naïve indigenous tribes; manipulating minds to follow a cause already doomed to fail.
They forced the good people of Arakan to jump into the abyss, incriminating brain-washed individuals and dragging them to blindly follow a cause already in its downfall.
When all hope seemed lost, Arakan’s local government unit in coordination with the Philippine Army’s 72nd Infantry (Gabay) Battalion, 10th Infantry Division, Philippine Army, brought the NPA terrorist group to its heels. Soldiers from the said battalion fought valiantly to liberate the long-oppressed town of Arakan.
Succeeding every adversity that the good people of Arakan have suffered under the hands of the NPA terrorist group, they are now regaining the strength to stand in their feet.
The remnants of tribulations are unrequited with any amount as displaced individuals are affected, families are torn apart and the children are in need of proper education for they are the future of Arakan.
Though difficult and exigent, learners and teachers were still determined to acquire the much-needed education that can be delivered to the affected area; forcing the children of barangay Maria Caridad to settle in a “solar dryer” used to dry corn as a makeshift classroom with no windows, aperture or any opening that allows air to pass through making it difficult for the occupants to breathe and grasp air.
Nevertheless, the Philippine Army vowed to help the community to withstand the challenges that they are currently facing.
Hence, the 512th Engineer Construction (Kaagapay) Battalion under the good leadership of Lt. Col. Ricardo Navarrete (GSC), PA, dispatched one construction team to construct multiple school buildings that are almost completed.
Under the Community Support Program (CSP) and joint effort funded by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ECLAC), the said building will provide a new learning space for students in the community and will allow ease of access in terms of education in far-flung areas within the vicinity of barangay Maria Caridad.
Not only limited in providing a school building for young learners, the unit also engaged in a road rehabilitation project situated in Barangay Kabalantian, bringing forth farm to market roads that allowed goods and produce from the community to travel with ease and granting the people of the said barangay to have decent access to basic services offered by the government.
Though the projects are yet to be completed, the impact that it made has greatly improved the state of living in both the barangays of Maria Caridad and Kabalantian which will further help the developmental process of the said areas and its municipality.
In the present being, the community is gradually flourishing and once more doing the very best it can to attain its goals and prospects with the assistance of the Philippine Army to provide security and a more sustainable environment for the people of Arakan.
Truly, building a road and a learning environment safe for the people and the future of Arakan; bringing prosperity and becoming a beacon of hope. (PR)
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