WestMinCom secures Basilan public works personnel from Abu Sayyaf

COTABATO CITY -- The military has assured the beleaguered personnel of the Basilan District Engineering Office of protection from bandits trying to sabotage high-ticket projects in the province.Two ethnic Yakan workers of the Basilan DEO were killed while two others were seriously wounded in an ambush in Lamitan City last week by members of the Abu Sayyaf.The Islamic State-inspired Abu Sayyaf is opposing the construction of more roads, schools and agricultural facilities in remote Basilan barangays from whose residents it collects money from at gunpoint to sustain its needs.Lt. Gen. Carlito Galvez, Jr. of WestMinCom said Wednesday he has reiterated a previous directive to military units in Basilan to secure all ARMM projects vulnerable to saboteurs.Basilan is a component province of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. They are angry because their camps have become within easy reach of police and military forces as a positive outcome of the implementation in Basilan of road projectsby the present ARMM administration, Galvez said Wednesday.Galvez said it was for the livelihood opportunities generated by the ARMM infrastructure projects in Basilan that more than a hundred Abu Sayyaf members decided to return to the fold of law in the past 16 months. Remnants of this group are trying their best to stop the construction of more roads that would traverse the remaining areas where they can freely roam. We have intensified our security efforts to prevent them from executing their bad plans, Galvez said.The Basilan DEO was cited as the best in road construction from among all eight district engineering offices in the autonomous region during last year’s commemoration of the 27thanniversary of the devolution of the functions of the Department of Public Works and Highways to the executive department of ARMM.Galvez said intelligence agents are also helping now protect Basilan’s district engineer, Soler Undug, whose house was bombed by Abu Sayyaf bandits last week. We are not taking chances. Engineer Undug and his subordinates are in the forefront of all these infrastructure development initiatives in Basilan, Galvez said.It was the Abu Sayyaf’s fourth attempt to kill Undug using improvised explosive devices in about three years.Citing intelligence reports, Galvez said leaders of the Abu Sayyaf are aware that the projects of the Basilan DEO are being implemented as a common initiative of Undug, ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman and his regional public works secretary, Engineer Don Loong.Hataman condemned on Monday the fatal ambush last week of the two Basilan DEO concrete mixer operators and called on local government units in the province to help the Police Regional Office-ARMM and WestMinCom locate the culprits.Galvez said Hataman and Loong must both be security-conscious too when they inspect project sites in Basilan. We shall also help protect them both. In the meantime, our concern is how to prevent lawless elements from getting close to the projects sites there, Galvez said.