Bangsamoro cross-section election security efforts on

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Local executives and the Islamic religious community have fused ranks in support of efforts meant to ensure peaceful barangay elections in southern Moro provinces and cities, officials said Saturday. 

Major Gen. Roy Galido, commander of the Philippine Army, told reporters they are thankful for the commitment of support from the local sectors to inter-agency election security missions during a dialogue here Thursday with Commission on Elections Chairman George Erwin Garcia and Ray Sumalipao, who is Comelec’s director for the Bangsamoro region.

The dialogue involved local executives from across the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao that has six provinces and three cities, heads of various Bangsamoro agencies and other stakeholders.

“We in the Philippine Army appreciate such `collective pro-peace stance’ of local executives, leaders of various sectors and senior officials of the Bangsamoro government and the religious communities in the autonomous region,” Galido, who participated in Thursday’s security dialogue here, said.

Army Brig. Gen. Alex Rillera, commander of the 6th Infantry Division covering Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte and parts of Lanao del Sur and Cotabato provinces, said they have also been assured by Muslim religious leaders of support for the Comelec’s election security initiatives.

The Ministry of the Interior and Local Government-BARMM and the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region also have joint programs complementing election security measures, according to Police Brig. Gen. Allan Nobleza, PRO-BAR director.   

“The MILG-BARMM’s police capacity-building programs and its construction of several police stations in remote towns and having given out dozens of police patrol cars to our units in recent months made us more capable to engage in election peacekeeping activities,” Nobleza said.

BARMM’s local government minister, the lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo, is chairman of the multi-sector Regional Advisory Group of PRO-BAR.

Members of the Darul Iftah, also known as the House of Opinions, comprised of Islamic theologians, told reporters via online Messenger Saturday, that they will intensify in the coming days their da’wah, or preaching activities, about the obligatory role of every Muslim to help maintain law and order in their communities, particularly in helping push peaceful democratic exercises forward.

Two provincial governors in BARMM, Mamintal Adiong Jr. of Lanao del Sur and his counterpart in Basilan, Jim Salliman, said in separate statements released Friday that they will both help the police and military protect the sanctity of the Oct. 31, 2023 barangay polls.

Rillera said the 6th ID will soon embark on dialogues with members of the municipal peace and order councils in towns under their jurisdiction to strengthen coordination on measures meant to ensure peaceful barangay elections in their respective municipalities.