BULUAN, Maguindanao – This capital town, once feared for long-drawn clan wars and Moro rebel sanctuaries, has slowly transformed itself to the province’s peace and development hub anchored on its Inaul fabric industry.
On Thursday, Maguindanao Governor Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu offically opened the 2nd year celebration of the Inaul Festival at the town’s jampacked gymnasium here coinciding with the province’s 52nd foundation anniversary.
“Let unity, peace and prosperity contnue to reign in this area as we move forward in the years to come,” Mangudadatu said as he banged the “Gong” (Muslim metal disk) marking the start of the festivities with Department of Toursim Assistant Secretary Eden Josephine David witnessing the event.
The Inaul industry in Maguindanao was virtually “dying” when Mangudadatu revived it by hosting the Inaul festival. If not for him, the weaving industry pioneered by ancient Moro sultanates would have vanished and become unnecessary part of history.
This was how Bai Sarika Pendatun, president of Women’s Rural Improvement Club Consumers Group, described the rebirth of the weaving industry that is only found in Maguindanao and made by Maguindanaon women.
Today, an “Inaul malong” (tube skirt) would sell between PHP2,500 to PHP5,000 depending on the kind of cloth and the design, according to Pendatun, adding the thread for special “Inaul” comes from Malaysia but local threads are also available.
“The governor is personally marketing Inaul not only here but overseas,” she said.
Maguindanao women weavers have been transferring their expertise to young women as part of Mangudadatu’s livelihood and income generating project, especially now that demand for Inaul cloth is rising.
To date, there are now more than 300 newly-trained “Inaul” weavers across the province, Engr. Nulfarid Ampatuan, 2nd Inaul Festival director, said.
He said more Moro women are currently interested in weaving because they see it as fast growing industry at the same time preserving a very vital Muslim culture.
Normina Odin, 39, a worker at the Inaul weaving section of the Women Center here where she earns some PHP6,000-PHP8,000 monthly with free food and accomodation, said most of the weavers given jobs by the provincial government are wives of former Moro rebels including herself.
“I have been working for the past 15 years here and I am happy,” said Odin, who is a mother of four and hails from Sultan Mastura town situated some 100 kilometers here.
Odin added that her husband, a former Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebel, is now engaged in farming in Datu Mastura and she visits him and their children twice a month especially during paydays.
Aside from the regular festival, this year’s activity includes a trade fair and a mini-museaum that displays an Inaul cloth weaved as early as 1920 and how it evolved into modern fashion fabrics. The exhibit shows how the cloth making was transformed from generation to generation.
As the festival commenced, Moro weavers have been busy as it aimed to produce about 300 or more cloths as ordered by clients.
Normina Collie, a 52-year-old Maguindanao’s only master weaver, is among them.
She was only 12 when she started weaving. Now, at 52, she is still weaving and declared “I will continue weaving as long as I am alive.”
Collie said there is passion in weaving, it is not like doing an ordinary thing, there is something special in Inaul weaving.
“I would feel I am weak if I don’t weave,” she said in Maguindanaon.
Buluan, in retropect, is the oldest town in the once undivided Cotabato Empire in Central Mindanao during the mid-60s. This town includes the vast Lake Buluan in its area of jurisdiction when it was created as one of the municipalities of Cotabato on Aug. 8, 1947 by Executive Order No. 82 of then President Manuel Roxas.
In1951, the municipality of Tacurong was created out of its south-western portion and subsequently in 1961, its south-eastern portion was separated to form the municipality of Columbio.
Six years later, the munipality of Lutayan was carved out from its southern section. Buluan became part of Maguindanao on Nov. 22, 1973, with the western part of Lake Buluan ceded to create the municipality of President Quirino that now forms part of Sultan Kudarat province.
Eventually, its northern portion was made into the municipality of Gen. S. K. Pendatun in 1991, with the area further divided in 2006 with two more municipalities that is now Mangudadatu and Pandag.
In 2014, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Maguindanao passed a resolution naming this town as the new capital of the province.
Maguindanao currently forms part of areas comprising the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao that also includes cities of Marawi and Lamitan, and also the provinces of Lanao del Sur, Sulu, Tawi-tawi, and Basilan. (Noel Punzalan and Edwin Fernandez/PNA)