6th ID’s new multi-million Peace Museum opened to public

COTABATO CITY — Officials launched on Wednesday a Peace Museum in the Army’s Camp Siongco in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte, showcasing relics and mementos depicting the sacrifices of soldiers in fostering peace in once hostile areas in Central Mindanao.

The construction of the 162-square-meter building near the entrance gate of Camp Siongco, where the headquarters of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division is located, was bankrolled by the office of Susana Salvador Anayatin, a member of the 80-seat Bangsamoro parliament.

Anayatin served as the chairperson of the now defunct Multi-Sector Advisory Board of 6th ID for around eight years. The board is touted as the most battle-hardened Army division in the country.

Her office spent P4.2 million for the project, drawn from its Transitional Development Impact Fund.

“We are grateful to Bangsamoro Parliament Member Anayatin for having embarked on this project. This shall be a show window of how our units had struggled to foster peace for sustainable development to spread around the division’s area of responsibility,” Major Gen. Alex Rillera, 6th ID’s commander, said.

Anayatin, Rillera, Presidential Assistant David Diciano of the Office for Bangsamoro Transformation under the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity, Army Brig. Gen. Taharudin Ampatuan representing the Western Mindanao Command in Zamboanga City and Gov. Abdulrauf Macacua of Maguindanao del Norte together led the symbolic inauguration of the 6th ID Peace Museum.

Officials of the Ministry of Public Works-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, commanders of different brigades under 6th ID and Muslim and Christian religious leaders were also present in the event.

Units of 6th ID, now covering the provinces of Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte and parts of Lanao del Sur in the Bangsamoro region, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, South Cotabato and Sarangani in Region 12, lost 483 personnel, among them officers, in fierce gunfights with the Moro National Liberation Front and subsequently, with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, from 1980 to 2010.

The MNLF and the MILF have separate peace compacts with Malacañang and are presently overseeing together the operation of the BARMM regional government that has jurisdiction over six southern provinces.