Military preparations for solemn June Eid feast celebration underway

COTABATO CITY --- The Western Mindanao Command is now planning multi-sectoral activities to complement the upcoming Eid’l Fitr to promote Muslim-Christian solidarity.The new commander of WestMinCom, Lt. Gen. Arnel Dela Vega, said Tuesday their lower units, including the 6thInfantry Division in Maguindanao, will also secure venues of the Eid open-field congregational prayers that would mark the culmination of the Ramadhan fasting season.This year’s Ramadhan started on May 17 and is expected to end anytime from between June 14 to 16, depending on the appearance of the new moon based on the lunar-based Hijrah calendar.Muslims fast from dawn to dusk during the Ramadhan as a spiritual obligation and reparation for wrongdoings.Fasting during Ramadhan, which means scorching heat in Arabic, is one of the five pillars of the Islamic faith, which include total submission to Allah, praying five times a day facing the west, giving of zakat (alms) to the poor and, for those who can afford the cost of travel, performing the hajj to Makkah in Saudi Arabia even just once in a lifetime.Dela Vega, commander of 6thID prior to his designation as WestMinCom commander, opened Camp Gonzalo Siongco, the division’s command center in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao during the 2017 Eid celebration and allowed more than 2,000 Muslims to pray on its parade ground and hosted a banquet for them. In the meantime, Muslim soldiers on the ground are being assisted in their fasting process by their Christian companions. Our Christian soldiers will help guard the areas where Muslims are to perform the outdoor Eid prayers next month, Dela Vega said.Brig. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, who took over from Dela Vega the leadership of 6thID last May 26, said his staff, Captain Arvin Encinas and Col. Markton Abo, public affairs chief and civil-military relations officer of the division, respectively, are now charting together an Eid’l Fitr outreach event.Sobejana said their 6thCivil-Military Operations Battalion will also have a role in their planned Eid diplomatic program.The 6thCMO Battalion had organized a number of peace and security summits involving Muslim, Christian and Lumad sectors in recent months. Religious and cultural solidarity among southern Mindanao’s Muslim, Christian and indigenous non-Moro residents is essential to building durable peace in the region, Sobejana said.Dela Vega said one of his diplomatic objectives now as WestMinCom commander is to help boost the efforts of the Army’s 104thBrigade in Basilan and local officials in the island province in securing the surrender of remnants of the Islamic State-inspired Abu Sayyaf.More than a hundred Abu Sayyaf militants in Basilan surrendered in batches in the past 24 months through the intercession of officials of the 104thBrigade and its component battalions, local executives and the regional peace and order council in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.Dela Vega said he will also support the peace-building campaigns of the provincial government of Maguindanao and the 6thID, meant to hasten the return to mainstream society of members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.The BIFF uses the IS flag as revolutionary banner and is blamed for all of the bombings in central Mindanao in the past five years. Our units in Lanao del Sur, in Sulu and in Tawi also have similar domestic reconciliation programs in partnership with local government units, Dela Vega said.Dela Vega said he and his subordinate division and brigade commanders are optimistic of a peaceful Eid in May. Our preparations shall be coordinated closely with the LGUs, the Islamic religious communities and the joint ceasefire committee of the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Dela Vega said.