Tacloban-based Muslims vow peace efforts

TACLOBAN CITY, June 5 -- Muslims based in this city are ready to work with the government to ensure peace in this city, which they consider as their second home.

National Commission on Muslim Filipinos Regional Director Malo Manonggiring said on Tuesday that city residents are assured that Muslims here are peace-loving people. They also committed to arrest any Muslims who will commit extremism in the region.

“We can assure people in Tacloban of harmonious relationships with us because we also love this place,” Manonggiring said.

The city has about 20,000 Muslim residents including the Balik Islam converts, according to Manonggiring. Most of them are into trading and some are government employees.

Since the Marawi siege, the official said they have not received any reports of Marawi residents who evacuated to this city or any places in Eastern Visayas where there are Muslim communities.

Despite the city’s peaceful status, city police chief Sr. Supt. Rolando Bade said they are not complacent considering the possibility of Muslim extremists coming to the city.

He added that the police and Tacloban-based Muslims have been conducting intelligence gathering to ensure that terror groups will not reach this city, considered the capital of Eastern Visayas.

Bade added that having Muslim police personnel here is very helpful in having strong ties with the Muslim community and in gathering information from them.

“There’s a regular dialogue between our Muslim police personnel and the community, we asked them about their problem and they always inform us when they see new faces joining them,” Bade told PNA.

The ongoing Marawi atrocities are painful to the Muslims here because it does not represent the teaching of Islam, according to National Commission on Muslim Filipinos Commissioner Aisha Flores-Malayang.

“We strongly condemn this kind of violent extremism because it is against the teaching of Islam because Islam is a religion of peace and Islam respects other religions,” she said.

Malayang added that like other Filipinos, they are also praying that the ongoing battle between the government troops and terrorists will end soon. 

For her, the Marawi standoff is a violation of the sanctity of Ramadhan, a holy month for Muslims during which they fast to commemorate the first revelation of the Quran to Muhammad.

Meanwhile, the Religious Affairs of Turkey and Turkiye Diyanet Foundation completed over the weekend the construction of a mosque donated to Muslims here.

The mosque will symbolize harmonious relationship between the Muslim community and residents here. It will also serve as Islamic cultural center in this city, according to Manonggiring.

The place for worship is located at the city's Anibong coastal district.

“I hope that this will become a symbol of unity and we can live peacefully side-by-side without discrimination,” he added.

Vice Mayor Jerry Yaokasin echoed Manonggiring’s statement and thanked the donor.

“We need this because this will foster for better understanding and relationship between Muslim community and the people of Tacloban,” he said.

Yaokasin recalled that the Muslim community here is among the first responders after super typhoon Yolanda struck and also a contributor to the local economy of Tacloban.

“Although we have different religion but our different religion should not divide us. Instead, it should unite us as one community, one city and one nation,” the vice mayor said. (Roel T. Amazona/PNA)