Information and news about the USAID Growth with Equity in Mindanao III (GEM 3) Project

Working with local partners, the U.S. government has built more than 1,000 community infrastructure projects across conflict-affected areas of Mindanao to support increased economic activity and help fulfill the promises of peace.

PAGLAT, MAGUINDANAO—In the local language, paglat means “demarcation.” It’s an ironic name for this small Central Mindanao municipality on the ever-shifting margins of the vast Liguasan Marsh.

Life for Paglat’s residents was, for a long time indeed marginal, and not just because of the isolation bred by sporadic conflict and lack of economic activity. The municipality had little agricultural infrastructure, and three of its eight barangays are in a particularly swampy area.

“Corn harvests were poor, and had to be suspended above ground because otherwise they would rot. In one barangay, people’s bellies often swelled because of the bad water,” recalls Datu Abdulkarim Langkuno of his early days as mayor of Paglat.

“Things were not much different from Spanish times and the second World War,” Langkuno added. “People were so poor they went about barefoot, children could not go to school.”

For years, different armed groups—including separatist forces and criminal gangs—crisscrossed the area at will, clashing with government troops and each other.

 “Sa totoo, rebelde ang mga tao diyan at hindi naniniwala sa gobiyerno [In truth, people were rebellious and had no trust in government],” Langkuno said.

Langkuno speaks with the bluntness one would expect of a former field commander of the Moro National Liberation Front. Before the peace agreement of 1996, he was the Director-General of the MNLF’s Overseas Revolutionary Committee operating out of Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia.

“People needed a proper livelihood and enough to eat in order to begin imagining a future without conflict,” Langkuno said.

Seeking help from international donors, he contacted the U.S. Agency for International Development, whose Growth with Equity in Mindanao (GEM) Program constructs barangay infrastructure projects in conflict-affected areas of Mindanao island and the Sulu Archipelago, under the oversight of the Mindanao Development Authority.

“These include community facilities such boat landings, bridges and footbridges, water systems, solar dryers, trading centers, and road renovations and upgrades,” said Engr. Ronaldo Ypil, team manager of GEM’s Barangay Infrastructure Project (BIP). “The kind of facility a community gets depends on the needs of its residents.”