Army brigade departs from now peaceful Camp Abubakar

MATANOG, Maguindanao -Folks bade goodbye to the Army’s 603rdBrigade that guarded for almost two decades Camp Abubakar, the iconic former bastion of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, and departed Tuesday for redeployment elsewhere.The relocation of the brigade’s entire manpower and combat equipment, including trucks and crew-served weapons, to Pigkalagan District in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao was premised on the noticeable normalcy spreading around now in the surroundings of the 13,000-hectare erstwhile guerilla enclave.Camp Abubakar is located at the tri-boundary of Maguindanao's Buldon, Barira and Matanog towns.Major Gen. Edmundo Pangilinan of the Army’s 6thInfantry Division, his subordinate brigade commander, Col. Ariel Dela Vega and Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao together folded the unit’s banner Tuesday in a simple rite that terminated its peace-keeping mission in the area.The brigade was replaced with a smaller contingent, the Army's 37th Infantry Battalion, which is comprised only of about 600 combatants.The brigade was deployed to Camp Abubakar about a year after it was liberated by the Armed Forces from MILF control on June 9, 2000 following three weeks of air, artillery and ground offensives.Then President Joseph Estrada led the hoisting of the Philippine flag at the center of the camp next day and even feasted on roasted pig, along with senior military officials, inside one of the Islamic schools there to celebrate the restoration of government control over the rebel stronghold.Estrada’s military adventurism then, which was to become known as his all out war” against the MILF, sparked conflicts that lasted for more than a year and dislocated about a million villagers in Lanao del Sur, Lanao del Norte, Maguindanao, North Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat.The symbolic folding of the brigade’s banner was witnessed by Maguindanao Rep. Sandra Sema and representatives from the MILF and the office of Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu.Sema and Hataman are staunch supporters of the government-MILF peace efforts.In a message, Hataman said he is confident the mayors of the four predominantly Iranun towns around the camp, home to some 5,000 Moro peasant families identified with the MILF, will help the 37thIB maintain the fragile peace now in the area. This replacement of the brigade with a smaller unit is a sign that the peace process is indeed succeeding and that soon we shall have lasting peace in this part of ARMM,” Hataman said.Sema said she is grateful to the MILF and the Philippine Army for adhering to all interim security agreements crafted by rebel and government negotiators, enabling residents of Camp Abubakar to rebuild their communities after the conflict in 2000 that drove them away and caused hunger and separation from family members fighting the military. We ought to thank President Benigno Aquino III for pushing forward with vigor his administration’s peace efforts with Moro people in this part of the country,” Sema said.Pangilinan and Hataman agreed to cooperate in maintaining law and order in the camp with the help of Moro community elders and local officials.Hataman, chairman of the ARMM’s peace and order council, said the regional government has dozens of on-going projects in the four towns around Camp Abubakar, all designed to hasten the restoration of normalcy in the area and generatelivelihood opportunities for local folks.Pangilinan said all activities of soldiers in the camp are closely coordinated with the joint government-MILF Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities.There has not been any single rebel-Army encounter in the area since 2003 owing to the religious compliance by both sides with the government-MILF Agreement on General Cessation of Hostilities, which is being enforced with the help of a multinational peacekeeping group, the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team.Camp Abubakar was established in the early 1980s by the MILF’s founder, the Egyptian-trained cleric Salamat Hashim, after he and his loyal followers among them Murad Ebrahim and the group’s chief negotiator now, Muhaquer Iqbal, bolted from the Moro National Liberation Front due to irreconcilable differences with MNLF chieftain Nur Misuari.Salamat, who died from a lingering cardiovascular disease in 2003, had showcased his concept of a puritan Islamic state in the camp.Brig. Gen. Carlito Galvez, Jr., chair of the government’s ceasefire committee and his MILF counterpart, Rashid Ladiasan, also graced Tuesday’s departure ceremony for the 603rdBrigade.