LSIs, residents out for so long return to Basilan with ease
BANGSAMORO NEWS UPDATES • 08:45 AM Sat Jun 20, 2020
1
By:
John M. Unson
Returning Basilan residents board a ferry en route to Isabela, a port city in the island province.
COTABATO CITY --- A total of 1,216 "native inhabitants" have returned to Basilan, among them longtime settlers in other regions enticed by the fragile peace now in the island province, officials said Friday.
Health officials and key sources from the Philippine Coast Guard confirmed Friday that the Basilan provincial government has facilitated the return to the province of 1,216 residents since May 25, all subjected to stringent COVID-19 examination processes.
Lt. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana of the Western Mindanao Command said it could be due to the peace now spreading around Basilan that besides the individuals stranded outside due to the COVID-19 quarantine, many others who have stayed in other regions for years have returned to the province.
"Reports reaching me indicated that some of those who have returned are `native inhabitants' already residing in cities and provinces in far Philippine regions who have decided to resettle in the province," Sobejana said Friday.
The military’s WestMinCom and the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (PRO-BAR) are both helping the provincial government of Basilan enforce its coronavirus containment measures in the province, which has 11 towns and two cities, Isabela and Lamitan.
Sobejana said provincial officials ferried to the province from Zamboanga City just last week 115 locally stranded individuals, or SLIs, from Davao City and, subsequently, 204 more from Metro Manila on Thursday.
The Basilan governor’s office, the provincial disaster risk reduction and management council, or PDRRMO, and physicians from the Integrated Provincial Health office had earlier rescued and relocated to Basilan 18 hungry Badjaos, among them children, wandering in Zamboanga City.
“The small Basilan province has 18 isolation facilities manned by health and social welfare workers. Local government units are also taking care of soldiers exposed to dangers that accompany their quarantine enforcement duties there,” Sobejana said.
He said the Basilan PDRRMO on Friday gathered in Zamboanga City 35 more LSIs from different regions, immediately returned to the province via a passenger boat.
Gov. Jim Salliman said he is thankful to WestMinCom’s 101st Brigade based in Basilan and the provincial police under PRO-BAR for supporting their efforts to return constituents from outside to the island province.
“No returning constituent can avoid our mandatory COVID-19 medical screening due to the surveillance and security support the WestMinCom and PRO-BAR are providing us,” Salliman said.
Brig. Gen. Manuel Abu, director of PRO-BAR, said Friday the Basilan provincial police reported to him this week that there are only three confirmed coronavirus infection cases in the province since President Duterte placed the entire country under a state of health emergency in March.
A former bastion of the dreaded Abu Sayyaf, Basilan is now being touted as the new investment frontier of the Bangsamoro region.
Almost 300 Abu Sayyaf members in Basilan have surrendered in the past three years, now being reintegrated into the mainstream communities via a domestic peace program of provincial officials, the WestMinCom and the provincial police.
Besides Basilan, the Bangsamoro region also covers the provinces of Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur in mainland Mindanao, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.