Palace urged to replace Westmincom chief with peace advocate

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - Local leaders and peace activists urged Malacañang on Tuesday to replace the outgoing chief of the Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) with an officer who has a record of peace-building in communities covered by the 1997 ceasefire accord between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Westmincom chief Lt. Gen. Rey Ardo, who is to retire from the military service on Nov. 9, is popular in Maguindanao and neighboring Central Mindanao provinces for his community projects supporting the GPH-MILF talks.

Ardo was commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, which covers Maguindanao, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and parts of the second district of Lanao del Sur, prior to his assumption as Westmincom chief last year.

“We are hoping Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and his principal, President Aquino, will replace Gen. Ardo with someone willing to continue what he has started,” said Bobby Benito, director of the Bangsamoro Center for Just Peace in Cotabato City.

There has been a fragile peace in Central Mindanao since 2011 owing to the religious enforcement by the 6th ID and the MILF of all preliminary security agreements aimed at preventing undue hostilities while the talks are underway.

The Maguindanao provincial peace and order council, chaired by Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu, said in an email that it also wants a peace advocate at the helm of the Westmincom to ensure the continuity of the fragile peace in the province.

“We want someone there who has propensity to address security problems in the province the diplomatic way in keeping with the tenets of the ceasefire agreement between the government and the MILF,” Mangudadatu said.

Mangudadatu, who has jurisdiction over 36 towns where the MILF has dozens of enclaves, said the zero encounter between the rebel group and units of the 6th ID since 2011 hastens the education and livelihood thrusts of the provincial government.

“Without conflicts, children can freely go to school and their parents can work in their farms quietly. We want this to continue to happen while we all look forward to the fruitful end of the GPH-MILF peace negotiations,” Mangudadatu said.

A former spokesman of 6th ID, retired Gen. Prudencio Asto, now a “peace education” teacher in Baguio City, said designating a new Westmincom commander who is also a peace advocate will preserve the gains of the GPH-MILF 1997 ceasefire agreement.

Fr. Eliseo Mercado, Jr., director of the Institute for Autonomy and Governance, which has various peace-building projects in Mindanao, said the Westmincom must be entrusted to an officer who has inclination to first exhaust all peaceful means of resolving domestic security issues before deciding on using force to address threats.

Ardo, who graduated from the Philippine Military Academy in 1981, had told members of the 6th ID in Camp Siongco in Datu Odin Sinsuat town during his visit last week that the Southern Moro uprising cannot be resolved with guns alone.

Ardo said the nagging Moro issue is best resolved through "convergence" of diplomatic efforts by local sectors, leaders of Moro fronts, the political communities and local government units in Moro-dominated areas.

Aveen Acuna-Gulo, project manager of the Indigenous People’s Development Program (IPDev), said the incoming Westmincom commander must have a “big heart” for indigenous non-Moro communities.

“Gen. Ardo helped in the rebuilding of the Teduray community in Mt. Firis in the second district of Maguindanao that was badly affected by armed conflicts in years past,” said Gulo, whose office has foreign-assisted community projects in remote IP tribal enclaves.

Gulo said the new Westmincom commander must have a deep appreciation of the importance of preserving the unique cultural identities of Mindanao’s indigenous non-Moro and Moro sectors.