40 former ASG members get houses via PAVE initiative

BASILAN --- Forty reforming former Abu Sayyaf bandits each got on Saturday a new house in Tipo-Tipo town under the Program Against Violent Extremism (PAVE).The houses were built by the executive department of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao via its Bangsamoro Regional Inclusive Development for Growth and Empowerment, most known as the ARMM-BRIDGE program.More than 200 members of the Abu Sayyaf that operates in the fashion of the Islamic State surrendered in Basilan in the past two years through the joint intercession of the ARMM regional peace and order council, the police and the military.The new houses in Tipo-Tipo were turned over on Saturday to the 40 former Abu Sayyaf members by the now outgoing ARMM governor, Mujiv Hataman, Col. Fernando Reyeg of the Army’s 104thBrigade and representatives from the provincial government of Basilan.Engineer Soler Undug of the Basilan District Engineering Office that helped oversee the construction of ARMM-BRIDGE houses in all towns in Basilan and its capital, Lamitan City, was also present in the event.The 40 former Abu Sayyaf bandits who got ARMM-BRIDGE houses are now being reintroduced into mainstream society by local officials, different agencies under Hataman’s office and the Western Mindanao Command of the Armed Forces.The ARMM-BRIDGE has constructed no fewer than a thousand houses in Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi in the past two years.It also rations food on periodic basis for malnourished children in conflict-torn ARMM barangays, including farming enclaves in Basilan, where the Abu Sayyaf once operated with impunity and held captives, some of them brutally beheaded for non-payment of ransom.Hataman, set to relinquish anytime soon his office to incoming officials of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, or BARMM, said he is optimistic the transitory management group of the new regional entity will sustain the PAVE program that the ARMM launched in 2018. One solution to the security problems hounding the Bangsamoro homeland is to extend to people socio-economic and psycho-social interventions. I know the Moro Islamic Liberation Front recognizes that and I don’t doubt the sincerity of its commitment to address these problems through BARMM, Hataman said.The enabling measure for ARMM’s replacement with BARMM, the Republic Act 11054, or the Bangsamoro Organic Law that got ratified via a plebiscite on January 21, is a product of more than 20 years of peace talks between Malacañang and the MILF.Lt. Gen. Arnel Dela Vega, commander of WestMinCom, said Sunday the PAVE program can be duplicated by local executives in other ARMM provinces where there are Abu Sayyaf forces and other Islamic State-inspired blocs like the Maute terror group and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters. As long as the police, the military, the local officials and the local communities cooperate, solving security concerns can be done easily. We in WestMinCom are certain the incoming BARMM government will initiate programs in support of that goal, Dela Vega said.Dela Vega said he was elated learning from reports from Army units in Basilan purporting that besides the houses awarded to the 40 former Abu Sayyaf members, Hataman’s office also organized the group into a cooperative with costly gears for deep sea fishing supplied by ARMM’s Humanitarian, Education, Livelihood Protection Synergy Program.