Inaul Festival winds up with call for harmony
By ALI G. MACABALANG
Buluan, Maguindanao
February 16, 2018
Colorful events and revelries for the weeklong Maguindanao’s second Inaul Festival ended here on Wednesday with renewed calls by organizers and visitors for harmony in the aspirations of Muslim, Christian and lumad sectors for meaningful and sustainable peace, unity and growth.
February 16, 2018
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| Maguindanao province governor Toto Mangudadatu poses with participants in this year's Inaul Festival. (AGM Photo) |
Colorful events and revelries for the weeklong Maguindanao’s second Inaul Festival ended here on Wednesday with renewed calls by organizers and visitors for harmony in the aspirations of Muslim, Christian and lumad sectors for meaningful and sustainable peace, unity and growth.
Organizing personalities alongside police and military officials were all praises over the reign of peace and jubilations in Maguindanao in the entire duration of the festival that started on Feb. 8.
“It’s amazing that no violence or untoward incident happened before, during and after the festival so far,” Senior Supt. Agustin Tello, Maguindnao provincial police director, told reporters yesterday.
Police and military officials said the festival-shaped tranquility has buoyed residents to wish for a “continuity or daily festivity” in Maguindanao.
They corroborated host Governor Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu’s statement that the just-concluded festival had sown the “seed of reconciliation for peace” even among political leaders in Manguindanao who figured in intense rivalries in past electoral exercises.
Members and leaders from the towns and political families of Ampatuans, Midtimbangs and Masturas that contested Mangudadatu in the 2010, 2013 and 2016 gubernatorial elections, respectively, participated in the weeklong fest.
At the end of the street dance competition in the festival finale on Wednesday, Gov. Mangudadatu told reporters that in next year’s festival episode, they will cluster contestants from politically divided clans and towns into teams to “further develop harmonious cohesion” in different competitive events.
The governor said he was “very glad” that the festival’s rationale in promotion tourism, attracting investors and uniting diverse clans and tribes in Maguindanao was partially achieved.
He cited as examples the attendance in different festival events of local and foreign personalities involved in tourism, business ventures and socio-political developments.
A team of United States-based advocates of culture-based tourism led by Hallelujah Panes witnessed Wednesday’s dance contest, and promised to help herald in the West and Europe the potentials of inaul-weaving and other cultural arts in Maguindanao.
“You witnessed our province. Please tell other people about your experience. Our place is not as bad as how some media reports depicted it,” Mangudadatu told the San Francisco-based visitors, who posed for pictorials with him and local officials including Assemblyman Toy Mangudadatu and provincial administrator Andulwahab Tunga . (AGM)
