Abubakar gateway now a ‘peace zone’

COTABATO CITY — One of two once impregnable gateways to Camp Abubakar, former enclave of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Maguindanao, was declared a "peace zone" the other day.

As such, the newly declared "peace zone," Barangay Tugaig in Barira town, located at the foot of Camp Abubakar, is off-limits to separatist guerrillas, loan sharks, unscrupulous agricultural traders and drug peddlers.

Signing the declaration were Merlinda Hussein, project manager of the Canadian government-funded Local Government Support Program-ARMM; Brig. Gen. Antonio Romero II of the Army’s 603rd Infantry Brigade; Barira Mayor Alexander Tomawis, and local religious and farmers’ leaders.

In another development, North Cotabato officials, escorted by Marines, brought six more truckloads of evacuees to their villages in former MILF enclaves in Pikit town the other day, the second group to return to their war-devastated communities in four days.

Pikit Mayor Farida Malingco said the evacuees decided to return to their communities in Barangay Bago Inged and surrounding villages after they were given assurances that combined units of the 2nd Marine Brigade and the Army’s 6th Infantry Division and the local government would watch over them.

Last Friday, Maj. Gen. Generoso Senga, 6th ID commander, accompanied by Marine officers and peace advocates, led by Pikit parish priest, Fr. Bert Layson of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, assured the evacuees that rehabilitation efforts are underway for their communities.

Teresita Deles, of the National Anti-Poverty Commission, who along with Senga and Malingco presided over a multisectoral peace dialogue in Bago Inged last Friday, said she would personally follow up the speedy release of more assistance, including farm equipment, for the villagers.