WestMinCom supports peace efforts of new Basilan execs
BANGSAMORO NEWS UPDATES • 22:30 PM Mon May 27, 2019
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By:
John Unson
The meeting between the Hatamans and church leaders was held at the bishop’s residence in Isabela City.
COTABATO CITY --- The military supports the plan of church leaders and elected Muslim officials in Basilan to organize a joint advisory council to help the government address domestic security woes.
Lt. Gen. Arnel Dela Vega of the Western Mindanao Command said Monday he was elated with the meeting last week of top Catholic missionaries in Basilan and two Muslim officials, Mujiv Hataman and spouse Sitti Djalia, incoming congressman and newcomer mayor of Isabela City, respectively, where they talked about key governance issues.
The Hatamans first paid courtesy visit to Isabela Bishop Leo Dalmao, Monsigñor Roel Casas and other church leaders at the bishop’s residence in Isabela City then, an engagement that gave both sides chance to discuss concerns besetting the local Muslim and Christian communities.
“I learned that they are planning to organize an interreligious advisory council to propagate peace among Muslims and Christians. That is good, a common initiative of the Catholic community and Muslim leaders in Isabela City and in Basilan province,” Dela Vega said.
Dela Vega said WestMinCom will support the joint peace initiatives of the Catholic clergy, the incoming Isabela City Mayor Sitti Djalia, the provincial government of Basilan under reelected Gov. Jim Salliman and the office of Congressman Hataman, former regional governor of the now defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Hataman, now representative of Basilan to Congress, told reporters Monday that the proposed interreligious peace advocacy bloc shall also enlist top leaders of the local Islamic religious community.
“The military and the police cannot solve the security problems in troubled areas without the support of local officials and their constituents,” Dela Vega said.
Dela Vega said one good example of a civil-military security cooperation feat was the surrender in batches of more than 200 Abu Sayyaf bandits in Basilan in the past two years that the WestMinCom and the Hataman-led ARMM regional peace and order council secured through backchannel dialogues.
“The planned creation of an interfaith pro-peace group will give momentum to the peace reigning in Basilan province now,” Dela Vega said.
Dela Vega said he also appreciates how Isabela City Vice Mayor Cherry Akbar accepted peacefully the result of the mayoral race in Isabela City last May 13 where she lost to neophyte contender Sitti Djalia.
“With peace-loving politicians, the police and the military will not have difficulty maintaining law and order in the surroundings,” Dela Vega said.
He said the conduct of the May 13 elections in Isabela City and the 11 towns in Basilan were markedly peaceful if compared to the 2013 and 2016 electoral exercises in the province.
The couple Rose and Roderick Furigay, mayor and vice mayor of Basilan’s capital, Lamitan City, respectively, were reelected to a third term last May 13 virtually unopposed.