Cross-section support for new 6th ID commander mounts

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Local executives, the business community, the Moro National Liberation Front and the chairperson of the Regional Development Council 12 on Wednesday assured support to the new commander of the Army's 6th Infantry Division covering Central Mindanao.

Lt. Gen. Roy Galido, commander of the Philippine Army, officiated on Tuesday in Camp Siongco in Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao del Norte the takeover by Major Gen. Antonio Nafarrete from retired Major Gen. Alex Rillera of the leadership of 6th ID, the largest Army division in Mindanao.  

“I will sustain the peace programs of my predecessors who had served ahead of me,” Nafarrete said after he was officially installed as 6th ID commander by Galido in an event witnessed by local executives, representatives of different sectors from across Central Mindanao and officials of the Bangsamoro regional government.

Bangsamoro Labor and Employment Minister Muslimin Sema told reporters on Wednesday that they are ready to complement Nafarrete's community projects that are parallel with Malacañang's peace overtures with the MNLF and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. 

Sema is chairman of the central committee of the MNLF that has its September 2, 1996 peace pact with the national government.

Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza, chairperson of the influential multi-sector Regional Development Council-12, said she will help connect Nafarrete to the Moro and non-Moro communities and the indigenous people in her province in support of 6th ID's peace and development programs under a new division commander.

"Joint Army and police peace and development activities to sustain the peace we have now in our province will boost our initiatives to fully harness the investment potentials of its municipalities and its capital, Kidapawan City," Mendoza, a staunch supporter of the Malacañang's Mindanao peace process, said. 

Galido and Nafarrete, who both belong to the Class ‘90 of the Philippine Military Academy, separately said they are to work together in pushing forward 6th ID’s peacebuilding programs complementing the peace initiatives of Malacañang, the Bangsamoro regional government and the local government units in Region 12 that has provinces and cities covered by the division.

One of the guests to the turnover ceremony, Mayor Rolly Sacdalan of Midsayap town in Cotabato, where there are 13 Bangsamoro barangays, said he will personally ask Nafarrete to participate in sessions of their Municipal Peace and Order Council, which is comprised of Muslim and Christian religious leaders, members of the business community and representatives from other sectors in the municipality.

Nafarrete is no stranger to peacebuilding programs of the government in predominantly Moro areas, having helped handle programs of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity in areas where there are bastions of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front before he became a general.