What Ought To Be An Illustrious Son of Cotabato City

By Mike G. Kulat

We all know that the 50th Founding Anniversary of our beloved Cotabato City was concluded on June 20 with really memorable festivity as a product of the efforts of the city government officials under the leadership of Mayor Datu Muslimen Sema and his ever-caring first lady Bai Sandra Sema. They both deserve to be cheered together with those who, in way or another, had helped in the success of the endeavor.

Those who had closely kept an eye to the past events related to the yearly commemoration could bear out the improvements in manner and variety of activities. This year’s celebration although less observed by the public was entirely new and uniquepart of which was the recognition and conferring of awards to fifty illustrious sons and daughters of Cotabato City.

The event could be considered as a fresh innovative addition and it instills significance to people who have devoted their lives and efforts for the betterment of Cotabato City and its environs. I have reasons to be astounded and glad because in my more than three decades of stay in the city never a past administration did recognize the contributions of people who have given their fair share of efforts in building the city’s future. No doubt this could be a potential legacy of the administration of Mayor Sema.

There is another reason for me to be interested in this affair because one of the recognized and conferred with the distinction as illustrious son of Cotabato City is no other than our friend, mentor and guardian Mr. Guiamel Mato Alim. He is the chairperson of the Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society (CBCS), a Moro network with over one hundred member organizations, and executive director of Kadtuntaya Foundation Inc. (KFI), a tri-people organization. Both of which are based in Cotabato City.

But what really ought to be illustrious sons and daughters of Cotabato City? I was not privy to the criteria used by the city government officials in selecting the people to be included in the unique event. Nevertheless, with our more than seven years of companionship, I am certain that Mr. Alim possesses exceptional character-traits that might have earned him or made him worth the title-- to be called an illustrious son of Cotabato City.

Then again, for obvious reason, I didn’t rely on my own comprehension but rather sought the opinion of other people who know him better. Among those I conferred with was an old friend of him who had served long as a trainer at KFI and who now runs his own organization in Mindanao: Ed “Bebot” Soldevilla. He described him to be a man with “incessant character for searching for a true leader but refuses to be one.”

“I’ve known him for so long. He possesses a perpetual character of unselfish desire to help the needy”, Soldevilla added.

Few days ago, while waiting for our group members to come over for an important meeting, I had a long chat with Ustadz Rahib Kudto, the president of United Youth for Peace and Development (UNYPAD) and deputy secretary general of Mindanao Peoples Caucus (MPC). Before ending our conversation, I asked him if he ever observed any above average traits of Mr. Alim. On this Mr. Kudto has a long portrayal of the man on the line. Nevertheless, in the end, he packaged it all as “a visionary man” with wide and broad spectrum of yearnings.

The above conversations can give some eye-opener on the long-lingering question of how the CBCSa network with more than one hundred civil society member organizationsis able to sustain its existence. What binds them together? All I can remember are the words of the late Moro Islamic Liberation Front Chair Ustadz Salamat Hashim in one of his voice-recorded messages on the success of an organization.

He said, “There were poorly structured organizations [that] succeed because of good leaders and there were some excellently structured with poor leaders [that] also sometimes succeed. But the best organization is the one [that is] excellently structured with best leaders…”.

Perhaps, this is one of the answers to the long-lingering unanswered query: the CBCS got a good leader in the person of its chairperson who has made it survive for the last eight years.

The irony is: several foreign partners doubted on sustaining the existence of the CBCS as a network. They deduced their conclusion on the basis of their world experiences that a network of civil society organizations usually lasts only for a period of one to three years (maximum) and meets its natural death afterwards. The fact is that a couple of years ago, CBCS had become a center of discussion in a civil society organization’s conference in the Netherlands due to its continuing existence and becoming stronger rather than dying down in the passing of years.