MNLF, MILF support new WestMinCom chief

COTABATO CITY — Officials of two Moro fronts that have separate peace pacts with Malacañang have assured of support for the community peacebuilding programs of the newly-installed acting commander of the military’s Western Mindanao Command.

Major Gen. Antonio Nafarrete, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division covering Central Mindanao, was installed as acting commander of the WestMinCom by Lt. Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr., chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, during a symbolic rite on Wednesday, November 20.

The event, held at the WestMinCom headquarters in Calarian in Zamboanga City, also marked the retirement from the service of WestMinCom’s commander, Lt. Gen. William Gonzales, who was replaced by Nafarrete.

The chairman of the MNLF’s central committee, Muslimin Sema, who is labor and employment minister in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, told reporters on Friday, November 22, that they shall back up the community peacebuilding programs of Nafarrete, just as they supported his leadership of the 6th ID.

“The MNLF has a duty to support military and police peacebuilding projects that are meant to strengthen unity among all sectors in Mindanao and maintain peace and order in predominantly Moro areas for commerce and trade to boom in these areas," Sema told reporters via text message.

Officials of the MILF occupying key positions in the BARMM government had also separately pledged support for WestMinCom’s peace and development initiatives under Nafarrete’s watch.

“There is no problem with us helping the WestMinCom sustain the peace now in areas covered by our peace deal with the national government,” Macacua said.

The WestMinCom covers the whole of BARMM, Region 9 and parts of Region 12, where there are government-recognized enclaves of the MNLF and the MILF that are now overseeing the peace and socio-economic programs of the Bangsamoro regional government.

While commander of 6th ID, Nafarrete and officers of Army brigades and battalions under under the division had secured the surrender in batches in the past six months, via backchannel talks, of 419 members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters and the Dawlah Islamiya, all of them reintegrated into the local communities.