Southerners see regional peace, progress in 2023

COTABATO CITY, Philppines — Officials are certain of more gains in Malacañang’s Mindanao peace process in 2023.

Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Mendoza said Saturday she and her constituent-mayors are pleased seeing President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. sustain Malacañang’s peace programs for southern communities started by his predecessors.

There are Moro communities in some of Cotabato’s 17 towns where there are government-recognized enclaves of the Moro National Liberation Front and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Both fronts have separate peace agreements with the national government.

“Units of the Philippine Army in Region 12 secured the surrender of so many members of the New People’s Army from January to December 2022. I can feel more are to come out in 2023 to avail of the government’s reconciliation program for NPAs,” Mendoza said.

Mendoza, chairperson of the multi-sector Regional Development Council 12, said she is also optimistic of the continuing rebound of Region 12’s economy from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cotabato Rep. Samantha Santos said Saturday she is ready to focus on legislations essential to the peace and security efforts in her province of state security entities.

Mayors in Cotabato province, among them Evangeline Pascua-Guzman of Kabacan, said Santos has been involving the Moro and Christian sectors and the indigenous people in the peacebuilding programs of her office.

Army Major Gen. Roy Galido, commander of the 6th Infantry Division, who is to assume anytime soon as chief of the Western Mindanao Command, said Saturday he will see to it that his successor shall continue 6th ID's peace efforts  that have resulted in the surrender of more than a hundred members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, the Dawlah Islamiya and the NPA in recent months.

“Credit for the surrender of these enemies of state goes to the provincial governors, the mayors, the vice mayors, the traditional leaders and peace advocacy groups in areas inside 6th ID’s area of responsibility,” Galido said.

He said he is expecting the surrender in 2023 of more NPAs in provinces covered by 6th ID via the division's backdoor peace maneuvers.

Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong, Jr. said there were considerable improvements in peace and order in his province from January to December this year, for him a tacit indication that they are in for peaceful days in 2023.

The Lanao del Sur provincial peace and order council, units of the Army’s 103rd Infantry Brigade and the Lanao del Sur Provincial Police Office together worked out the surrender of 53 members of the Dawlah Islamiya in the past 11 months.

Bangsamoro Labor Minister Muslimin Sema, who is chairman of the MNLF, said Saturday their front’s central committee shall keep supporting the president’s peace efforts for Moro communities.

“We have done that in 2022 and years before. We shall do it with vigor in 2023,” Sema said.

Sema said he is very sure that the cooperation of the MNLF and the MILF in furthering the peace and development agenda of the Bangsamoro government will bear more “dividends” in 2023.

The chief minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Ahod Ebrahim, is chairman of the MILF’s central committee.

There are members of the MNLF in different agencies of the MILF-led BARMM and in its 80-member regional parliament.

Three members of the Bangsamoro parliament, the Physician Kadil Sinolinding, Jr., the lawyers Suharto Ambolodto and Paisalin Tago, separately said Saturday they are optimistic of more improvements in peace and order in the autonomous region in 2023.

The three BARMM parliament members have expressed willingness to cooperate in formulating regional laws that can protect the gains of Malacañang’s Mindanao peace process.

“No one else can best help President Marcos. Jr. address the peace and security and economic woes in our communities but us, Moro leaders,” Tago, who is also BARMM’s transportation and communications minister, said.