Officials highlighted the 38th founding anniversary of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division on Thursday, October 24, with the display of 1,421 assorted combat weapons, some turned in voluntarily by owners, while others were seized in anti-terror operations in Central Mindanao over the past 24 months.
Lt. Gen. Antonio Nafarrete, commander of the Philippine Army, and the chief of the Western Mindanao Command, Major Gen. Donald Gumiran, who is overseeing the 6th ID in a concurrent capacity, presented the cache to local officials and reporters on Thursday as one of the highlights of the division’s 38th anniversary celebration.
The 6th ID has units in the provinces of Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, South Cotabato and Sarangani, as well as in the cities of Cotabato, Tacurong, Koronadal and General Santos.
‘We are thankful to the sectors that helped us collect these firearms through community peace initiatives. Some of these were confiscated during tactical engagements, law-enforcement style, in far-flung areas,’ Gumiran told reporters and guests at Camp Siongco in Barangay Awang, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte, where the 6th ID’s headquarters is located.
Many of the M16, M14, M1 Garand, M1 and M2 Carbine rifles, .30- and .50-caliber machine guns, M60 machine guns, pistols of various calibers, B40 anti-tank, and 40-millimeter grenade launchers displayed at Camp Siongco were turned over to its units by members of the now-weakened Dawlah Islamiya and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters who have returned to the fold of law in recent months.
The erstwhile Dawlah Islamiya and BIFF members who have pledged allegiance to the government have been reintegrated into mainstream society through the joint humanitarian programs of the 6th ID, local government units in Central Mindanao, the Bangsamoro regional government, and the offices of the Social Welfare and Labor and Employment Departments in Region 12.
Officials of the 6th ID and Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity Carlito Galvez Jr. are implementing in Central Mindanao the Small Arms and Light Weapons Management Program, a disarmament campaign complementing Malacañang’s peace process in Mindanao’s predominantly Moro areas.
Nafarrete, Gumiran, Galvez, and Bangsamoro Chief Minister Abdulrauf Macacua also awarded, as part of the 6th ID anniversary activities, special citations to certain members of the Joint Peace and Security Team (JPST) for exemplary accomplishments. The JPST helps local government units maintain law and order in areas with state-recognized enclaves of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
The JPST is composed of representatives from the Philippine National Police, members of the Army and other branches of the Armed Forces, and former MILF guerrillas. The MILF has two compacts with the national government: the 2012 Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro and the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro.
Both peace agreements paved the way for the replacement in 2019 of the then 27-year Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao with the more politically and administratively empowered Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, whose regional government is managed jointly by representatives from the MILF and the Moro National Liberation Front.
The MNLF has a separate truce with Malacañang, forged on September 2, 1996, in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Since its inception four years ago, the JPST, operating in the Bangsamoro Region and Administrative Regions 9, 10, and 12, along with local executives and peace advocacy groups supporting the government-MILF peace initiatives, has settled more than 50 deadly Moro clan wars and secured the surrender of more than 50 individuals wanted for high-profile cases pending in various courts.
‘This peacekeeping team shows the oneness, in its truest form, of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Philippine National Police, and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in addressing security challenges and resolving peace and security problems in areas covered by the Mindanao peace process,’ Galvez told reporters after Thursday’s awarding ceremony at the 6th ID’s gymnasium inside Camp Siongco.
He said OPAPRU is thankful to Macacua, the highest official in the Bangsamoro regional government and chief of the MILF’s Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces, and members of their 80-seat parliament for cooperating in regional peacebuilding activities parallel with Malacañang Mindanao’s peace initiatives.