Local sectors supports new Central Mindanao Army chief

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Former violent religious extremists, local executives and Bangsamoro regional officials have assured to support the cross-section peacebuilding initiatives of the new commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division covering Central Mindanao.

Brig. Donald Gumiran took over the leadership of the 6th ID from Lt. Gen. Antonio Nafarrete via a turnover rite on Saturday in Camp Siongco in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte that the commander of the Philippine Army, Lt. Gen. Roy Galido, officiated.

Nafarrete is now commander of the military’s Western Mindanao Command based in Zamboanga City, which covers about half of Mindanao, including all the five provinces and three cities in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Three now reforming erstwhile members of the Dawlah Islamiya, Kassim Samsuddin Batua, Muktar Gamis Odin and Mansur Inshua Kamir, who surrendered in 2024, separately told reporters on Sunday that they shall help Gumiran convince their few remaining former companions in the now moribund group and its ally, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, return to the fold of law to get reintegrated into mainstream society.

Batua, Odin and Kamir, experts in fabrication of improvised explosive devices, are among the 264 Dawlah Islamiya and BIFF members from different towns in Cotabato province and the 63 Bangsamoro barangays in its territory who surrendered in batches in the past 14 months through the intercession of Gumiran, then commander the 602nd Infantry Brigade, Gov. Emmylou Talino-Mendoza and her constituent-mayors.

“Our provincial government supported his peacebuilding activities while he was still a brigade commander in our province. We shall do the same now that he is the commander of the Philippine Army’s largest unit in Region 12,” Taliño-Mendoza said, referring to Gumiran.

Taliño-Mendoza, chairperson of the influential multi-sector Regional Development Council 12, said her office will also help Gumiran and Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity Carlito Galvez Jr. implement the government's Small Arms and Light Weapons Management Program in Central Mindanao.

The SALW Management Program is focused on the collection of unlicensed firearms from the local communities in Central Mindanao's Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, South Cotabato and Sarangani provinces.

Three officials of the BARMM government, Health Minister Kadil Monera Sinolinding, Jr., Labor and Employment Minister Muslimin Gampong Sema and Transportation and Communications Minister Paisalin PangandamanTago, told reporters via separate text messages that will help push forward 6th ID’s interfaith solidarity promotion thrusts that Gumiran had promised to intensify.

Sinolinding, Sema, who is chairman of the Moro National Liberation Front, and Tago also assured to help Gumiran reconcile feuding Moro families in BARMM municipalities, as ordered by his two immediate superiors, Nafarrete and Galido.