Maguindanao folk avail of HEART, 6th ID pro-people services

COTABATO CITY -- Civilian and military medics have served 17,245 poor Moro residents in 29 Maguindanao towns in a series of humanitarian outreach missions that started early November.The project, to cover all of Maguindanao’s 36 towns, is a joint initiative of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao-Humanitarian Emergency Assistance and Response Team, or ARMM-HEART, and the Army’s 6thInfantry Division.The HEART is ARMM’s regional disaster and calamity reaction contingent operating under the office of the region’s chief executive, Gov. Mujiv Hataman.Units of 6thID deployed in Maguindanao province and HEART personnel have provided medical and dental services to Muslim, Christian and Lumad residents in 29 of Maguindanao’s 36 towns in the past three weeks.Major Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, commander of 6thID, said Thursday the HEART is the lead entity behind the humanitarian outreach missions. The continuing activity supports the efforts of 6thID and the ARMM regional government to foster cordiality with the communities in Maguindanao that were served by units of the division and workers of HEART, Sobejana said.Reports obtained Thursday from 6thID’s headquarters in Camp Siongco in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao and HEART’s office inside the 32-hectare ARMM capitol in Cotabato City indicated that 17, 245 people have availed of the free health services during the outreach missions.More than half of the beneficiaries are children and elderly folk, the reports stated.Besides the medical and dental services, Army barbers also gave 1,113 residents free haircuts during the outreach activities in Maguindanao’s 29 towns. This HEART initiative is good for the Mindanao peace process. It corrects the notion that people in far-flung areas are neglected. They are not. It’s the HEART that goes around to them to serve them, Sobejana said.