FORMER Moro rebels—and even Abu Sayyaf members and their families—are now tilling the land they once fought for in Sulu. At a roundtable discussion in Malacañang, President Macapagal-Arroyo cited the “Arms for Farms” scheme being implemented by Sulu Gov. Benjamin Loong, which helped 25,000 members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) till and benefit from the yield of 8,500 hectares of land. The President said Sulu used to top the list of the poorest provinces in the country but now its poverty incidence is down to 47 percent from 67 percent. She said former MNLF members were now living peacefully as fishermen, farmers and soldiers of the government. “There are many programs for people who would want to exchange their arms for farms—for those who want to turn [their] swords into plow shares, as mentioned in the Bible,” Ms Arroyo said. Loong said that under the Arms for Farms program, his office offered the use of farm tractors to land owned or tilled by former combatants in areas in Sulu. It also provided them with planting materials delivered on site. Come harvest time, the yield would all go to the combatant-farmers. “So that’s our agreement—they store away their guns and bring out their bolos instead,” Loong told Ms Arroyo. In the televised program, the President interviewed two former MNLF rebels who told her that they got their current job as tillers of government land when tractors operated by Loong passed by their areas and sought them out. By planting and eventually selling cassava, palay and corn, Asak Mahalail told the President that he was able to send to school four of his six children. No turning back Raham Uyong, on the other hand, said he was initially surprised to find out that under the program, he would get 100 percent of the harvest from his land. Uyong told the President that he had 2 hectares of land that had not been planted or tilled for the past 13 years, but now he had his first harvest. “Hindi na ako babalik sa dating gulo dahil iyong mga anak ko naka-school na (I will not go back to the old struggle because my children are now in school),” he told Ms Arroyo. Loong told reporters that he started the program in late 2004 and intended to have some 20,000 hectares of land cleared and planted to crops by 2007. Bank loan He said he sought a loan from the Land Bank of the Philippines to purchase tractors, farming equipment and planting materials to be distributed to MNLF members who would want to go into farming. He also used 20 percent of his province’s development funds. Asked whether members of the Abu Sayyaf were benefiting from the program, he said they did but they were mostly family members. “One of the objectives is to diminish the numbers of the Abu Sayyaf,” Loong said. Asked why the program did not allow the outright confiscation of arms from former rebels, he admitted this was difficult to do. Loong said they could only discourage former rebels from carrying arms and urge them to focus on farming. | 
