ILOILO CITY, Philippines, August 17, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – In addition to healing the deep wounds resulting from allegations of massive vote-buying marring elections that brought him to power, the new president of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) has a difficult task ahead, mostly characterized by a mixed agenda.

Governor Zaldy Puti Ampatuan, on his part, vowed to do his best to alleviate the lives of the region's people from being among Philippines' poorest.

"The elections are over. I would now buckle down to work. I have a lot of work to do," Ampatuan told IslamOnline.net over the telephone Wednesday, August 17.

He said he would now have little time for politics and politicking as "I will have myself full with all these concerns and problems."

He emphasized, too, he has already started "healing the wounds" caused by the elections by calling on everyone to "unite for peace to reign" in the region.

Ampatuan won over outgoing ARMM Vice Governor Mahid Mutilan and former mayor Ibrahim Paglas III.

Ampatuan said his list of priorities is topped by the improvement of education and health services to the region's 2.4 million people. The strengthening of the agriculture sector and creation of additional livelihood projects come next along with addressing alleged cases of corruption.

While positively viewing Ampatuan's promises, Prof. Abhoud Syed Lingga of the Institute for Bangsamoro Studies said that the 37-year-old leader should first focus his attention on improving the administration of the autonomous region and how to deliver basic services to the ARMM people.

"His immediate concern should be how to make ARMM work. He should attend to the delivery of basic services, address the reported corruption, look at the how to increase and properly spend the budget, and work for peace," Lingga told IOL Wednesday.

Others see differently as regards the agenda awaiting Ampatuan.

The Moro-Christian Peoples Alliance (MCPA), for example, believe the new set of ARMM officials "must stand up to the ongoing government-led wars in Mindanao like the continuing war in Sulu which remains unresolved and volatile up to now."

Amirah Ali Lidasan, MCPA secretary general, said the fifth set of ARMM leaders "should sincerely address the root causes of the war on Mindanao if it were to
prove that it will genuinely serve the Bangsamoro peoples' interests."

The Moro leader raised this challenge as she expressed "dismay" over the performance of the ARMM in the previous years.

"If the previous ARMM leadership was not able to register a decisive stand and just intervention when the GMA government launched an all-out-offensive in Sulu, as well as to the to the countless military operations that continue to claim lives and displace thousands of Moro families from their homes,  what change could be hoped for with the new ARMM leadership?" Lidasan told IOL.

Lidasan cited the case of the southern Mindanao island of Sulu, an ARMM province, which saw members of the Philippine military and Moro National Liberation Front fighters exchange gunfire on February this year, remains a no-man's-land.

"Despite the fact that national events have put it behind public-attention", Sulu-war victims "are bereft of justice and indemnification, many evacuees fear of going back to their homes," and "the strong military presence continues to blanket Sulu in fear," Lidasan said.

On the other hand, Suara Bangsamoro [Political Party] Metro Manila spokesperson Cosain Naga Jr. questioned what "significant change" the ARMM government can do for the Muslim settlers in the Philippine capital.

"Our Moro brothers and sisters in Metro Manila have endured terrorist-tagging, community raids, warrant-less arrests, bastardization of our identity and faith, and the ARMM has remained mum and powerless to defend them. Will the newly-elect ARMM governor put the culprits of the Camp Bagong Diwa massacre behind
bars, for instance?" Cosain Naga Jr. said.

Lingga, however, believes it is not fair to assess how the new Ampatuan-led regional government would fare this early.

"We will be prejudging him. We will just wait and assess him based on his performance," he told IOL when asked how he foresees the new leadership.

He also blamed the lack of fiscal autonomy for the failure of the ARMM to address the people's woes.

"It is the national government which identifies to which project the money of the ARMM goes. There is no elbow for development under this setup. What the Philippine Congress should do is give a lump-sum allocation and let ARMM determine to which the public money should be spent."

He said he is convinced that the failure of the past four ARMM administrations to get the region's people out of their sad plight was courtesy of the system.

"It is not the person but the system [of autonomy]. The problem is the system. Why is it that after four sets of ARMM officials the problems remain?" Lingga said.

Lingga further added, "the system doesn't work. The problems are still there, this means there was a failure. Now the basic question is: Would autonomy solve the problems?"

ARMM, led by a governor, vice governor and a 21-member legislature, was created in August 1989 and was organized and inaugurated on November 6, 1990.

It is made up of the provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, and Basilan, and the Islamic City of Marawi.

ARMM, which covers approximately 12,000 square kilometers or about four percent of the Philippines' total land area, has an abundant supply of low cost labor with the average daily minimum wage rate at only about US$3.00 a day.