Army, former Moro rebels join hands to fight common enemies

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao  – They used to be enemies, real enemies, because they fire at each other every time they chance upon in the battle field.

Now, government forces and Moro rebels are now one in doing things that will benefit themselves and the people they promised to serve and fight a common enemy or enemies.

Elements of the Army’s 6^th Infantry Division and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) field commanders in the Bangsamoro Region in Muslim Mindanao have undergone training on disaster response, including savings lives.

They will be trained and capacitated to save lives and properties during man-made and natural calamities.

The program, dubbed as “Sindaw nu Kalilintad” (Light of Peace), includes joint simulation exercise and executive course of incident command system.

The former arch-enemies jointly map out plans and held simulations together, the exact opposite of their attitude in the battle fields before the government’s peace initiatives in southern Philippines.

During simulations, the trainees were given tasks and underwent simulation exercises on what to do during terror attacks, floods, earthquakes and pandemic like the COVID-19.

Atty. Naguib Sinarimbo, BARMM interior minister, said the participants were basically trained how to respond correctly to disasters in their areas of residences or communities.

It also aims to strengthen the cooperation and collaboration among government forces and former Moro rebels with common goals of saving lives and properties.

Providing support training are members of the BARMM Rapid Emergency Action on Disaster Incidence (READi) and the BARMM’s Ministry of the Interior and Local Government (MILG).

Major Gen. Diosdado Carreon, 6^th ID chief, said with this training he sees a well-equipped disaster responders.

“We have seen how you worked shoulder to shoulder during our joint peace and security training and deployment, this is a testament of how the Bangsamoro peace agreement has come,” Carreon said.

Abdulraof Macacua, BARMM executive secretary, and Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF) commander, said before this training was materialized, BARMM Chief Minister Murad Ebrahim had envisioned that one day government forces and MILF will be working together for common good.

“Merong magandang cooperation doon lalo na sa paglaban sa disasters, kasama na dito yung COVID pandemic, at perennial na problema natin sa flooding at iba pang human induced na mga disasters, pag na build ito at na establish natin yung magandang rapport nila mas magiging effective tayo,” Sinarimbo said.

Toks Ebrahim, Joint-Normalization Committee participant, said he learned a lot from this training.

“Malaki ang natutunan namin kasi kahit gaano kalaking mga insidente pwede kami mag coordinate sa Armed Forces of the Philippines, pwede kaming mag coordinate sa ibang local government units,” Ebrahim said. (FC)