Local execs pledge support to WestMinCom peace campaigns

COTABATO CITY --- Local executives in central Mindanao promised the new chief of the Western Mindanao Command support to all his programs complementing the southern peace process.North Cotabato Vice Gov. Shirlyn Macasarte-Villanueva said Wednesday the provincial board on Tuesday drafted a resolution thanking Gen. Arnel Dela Vega for his diplomatic initiatives with the local communities while at the helm of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division.Dela Vega’s stint as WestMinCom commander starts on Wednesday (May 23).Dela Vega was 6thID commander prior to his designation as commander of WestMinCom, following the assumption of its tactical figurehead, Gen. Carlito Galvez, Jr., as chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.Like Dela Vega, Galvez also served as 6thID commander before he got to WestMinCom’s highest post. They both belong to the Class 1985 of the Philippine Military Academy.The North Cotabato Sangguniang Bayan resolution commended Dela Vega for his conflict resolution engagements with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and for his role in the surrender of more than a hundred guerillas of the New People’s Army in central Mindanao while chief of 6thID.Dela Vega was also instrumental in the surrender in two batches in recent weeks of 15 members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters in Maguindanao.The reforming BIFF members are now being ushered into mainstream society by the 6thID and the office of Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu via livelihood and psycho-social interventions. We are glad that Malacañang placed Gen. Dela Vega at WestMinCom. We know he is qualified to manage that very large military unit, Macasarte-Villanueva said.Macasarte-Villanueva said Galvez had also managed efficiently the enforcement in North Cotabato of the Mindanao-wide martial law that President Rodrigo Duterte declared on May 23, 2017, the day combined Maute and Abu Sayyaf terrorists laid siege to Marawi City, sparking hostilities that lasted for five months.The 6thID covers central Mindanao’s adjoining provinces of North Cotabato, Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat and the cities of Cotabato and Tacurong and several towns in Lanao del Sur.Mangudadatu, chairperson of the inter-agency Maguindanao peace and order council, said Wednesday his administration is as grateful to Dela Vega for helping the provincial reconciliation task force settle more than a dozen vendetta clan feuds involving local clans while 6thID commander.He said Dela Vega also extended support to the anti-extremism summits sponsored in recent months by the Maguindanao provincial government. It was also during his time as 6thID commander when members of the BIFF started coming out to recognize the Philippine Charter, said Mangudadatu, now in his third and last term as Maguindanao governor.He said the Maguindanao provincial government will support all peace-building programs of the WestMinCom under Dela Vega. Of course the same support goes to Gen. Galvez of the AFP, Mangudadatu said.He said Galvez and Dela Vega are in better positions now to work out the surrender of more Islamic State-inspired militants in Maguindanao and nearby provinces. We in Maguindanao shall gladly provide whatever support they would need, like socio-economic and other humanitarian interventions, to improve the lives of violent militants who wish to return to the fold of law, Mangudadatu said.