Mindanao execs vow vigilance, preparedness vs attacks

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines  – Provincial officials in Central Mindanao will step up  their cooperation with the police and military in addressing the security concerns in the region,  which has been recently rocked by bombings.

Governors Lala Taliño-Mendoza of North Cotabato, Esmael Mangudadatu of Maguindanao, Suharto Mangudadatu of Sultan Kudarat, and Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Mujiv Hataman also assured Executive Secretary Pacquito Ochoa that they will improve their gathering of intelligence information to prevent bombings during an emergency security dialogue Tuesday at the headquarters of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division in the province.

Col. Dickson Hermoso, spokesman of 6th ID, said the meeting was jointly presided over by Ochoa, chairman of the national government’s Anti-Terror Council, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas.

Hermoso said the mayor of Cotabato City, Japal Guiani Jr., whose administration is still busy attending to the medical and other needs of the victims of the  roadside bombing, was also present in the meeting.

“It was a brainstorming session where security measures and cooperation among local executives, the police and the military were discussed for the purpose of building a consensus on how to protect the local communities safe from threats of lawless groups and criminal gangs,” Hermoso said.

Lt. Gen Rey Ardo, chief of the Western Mindanao Command, Police Director Felizardo Serapio of the Philippine Center for Transnational Crimes, and Armed Forces chief Lt. Gen. Emmanuel Bautista, also joined in the closed-door session at the conference room of the 6th ID’s command center inside Camp Siongco in Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao.

All of the officials who attended the security dialogue declined to discuss the meeting with journalists,  but some of them hinted the meeting sought to imrpove the  cooperation on security efforts among local executives, the Philippine National Police and the AFP.

Mangudadatu, who is chairman of the Maguindanao provincial peace and order council (PPOC), told The Star via text message that the visit of the members of President Aquino’s cabinet and senior AFP and PNP officials was a “morale booster” and indicates  the national government’s support to the efforts of LGUs in addressing domestic peace and security concerns.

Tuesday’s emergency security meeting at Camp Siongco was preceded by the dislocation on Monday of some 400 Moro families, driven from their homes by running firefights between the  Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters and soldiers in Saidona town in the second district of Maguindanao.

The evacuees from Barangay Dasawao in east of Saidona town in the second district of Maguindanao have relocated to nearby barangays far from the reach of members of the bandit group.

Dozens of Moro families in Barangays Bangkat and Ganta, both in Saidona, and in Reina Regente in nearby Datu Piang town have also fled from their homes for fear of a spillover to their villages of the hostilities in Dasawao, where the BIFF collects "taxes" from villagers.

An evacuee, 40-year-old Kamensa, told reporters they were forced to evacuate when they heard exchanges of automatic gunfire and explosions of  grenades near their village in Barangay Dasawao past 5 p.m. Monday.

The hostilities erupted when the bandits, led by notorious commanders identified with a senior BIFF leader named Tambako and Ustadz Karialan, engaged a group of soldiers approaching Barangay Dasawao from the west. John Unson