'Combat-exhausted' Army division commits anew to peace process

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines — Military officials on Saturday renewed commitment to the Mindanao peace process and assured of their readiness to help foster normalcy in areas devastated by secessionist conflicts in decades past.

Major Gen. Edmundo Pangilinan, commander of the Army's 6th Infantry Division, said the focus now of 6th ID is to strengthen the solidarity of Muslims, Christians and lumad sectors in Central Mindanao in support of the peace overture between Malacañang and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Dozens of officers from different 6th ID units led by Pangilinan and Lt. Gen. Fernando Iriberri, commander of the Philippine Army, representatives from the Philippine Marine Corps and the Philippine National Police, gathered on Saturday at Camp Siongco in Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao to celebrate the division's 27th founding anniversary.

The 6th ID was touted as the Philippine Army's most combat-exhausted division for having fought bloody battles with MILF forces in Central Mindanao before the rebel group's peace talks with Malacañang gained headway in 2009.

The GPH-MILF negotiation began January 7, 1997 but challenged with security problems resulting in deadlocks and repeated outbreaks of hostilities. The incidents caused the dislocation of Central Mindanao's Muslim, Christian and indigenous highland folks.

Units of the 6th ID figured in intense encounters with MILF forces in 2000, 2003 and 2008.

Not a single Army-MILF encounter has occurred in the towns and provinces under the 6th ID's jurisdiction since 2010, paving the way for the influx of foreign capitalists putting up Cavendish banana and oil palm plantations in Maguindanao.

Pangilinan and Iriberri urged members of the 6th ID to engage in peace-building activities to reinforce the traquility experienced now in Central Mindanao ushered in by the government-MILF Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, which both sides crafted on March 27, 2014 in Malacañang.

The commemoration of the 27th anniversary of 6th ID was capped off with a parade of the division's disaster and emergency response hardware, which soldiers utilize whenever floods ravage Maguindanao towns located along the 220,000-hectare Liguasan Delta.

In a message, Iriberri said the top leadership of the Army is keen on pursuing continuing modernization of its ranks.

Iriberri called on the MILF and all other stakeholders to the Mindanao peace process and the 6th ID's rank-and-file personnel to cooperate in dismantling the socio-economic, political and religious barriers separating Southern Mindanao residents to hasten the restoration of normalcy in areas now rising from devastation wrought by past conflicts.

"Let's help one another. Let's put down the barriers separating the local communities and let us build bridges to peace and understanding and harmony," Iriberri said.

Also present in the event were former 6th ID commanders, the now retired Generals Raul Urgello, Roy Kyamko, and Agustin Demaala, who is an incumbent member of the South Cotabato provincial board.

Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu, chairman of the provincial peace and order council, said the shift in what he calls "service paradigm" of Army units in the province help improve the investment climate in its 36 towns.

RELATED: Army gives planeside honors to slain soldiers

"Maguindanao is more and more becoming very attractive to foreign investors because of the peace now reigning in the province as a result of the Mindanao peace process," Mangudadatu said.

Mangudadatu was one of the guests to the 6th ID's anniversary feast, which was also attended by officers of the 1st Marine Brigade and its component battalions based in coastal towns in nearby Sultan Kudarat province.

Mangudadatu said the provincial government has actively been supporting the humanitarian activities of the 6th ID in areas where there are MILF camps to bolster the cordiality between the division and Moro peasant communities.