PRO-BAR has new regional director
Peace and Order • 08:30 AM Tue Sep 22, 2020
3
By:
John M. Unson
Police Director Camilo Coscolan received a traditional token Monday from Cotabato City Mayor Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi. (Contributed)
MAGUINDANAO --- The chief of the Philippine National Police installed Monday a new director for the Bangsamoro region in a ceremony made markedly peculiar by COVID-19 containment protocols.
Brig. Gen. Samuel Rodriguez took over the command of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region from Major Gen. Manuel Abu in a rite held at Camp SK Pendatun in Parang town, presided over by their superior, Police Director Camilo Coscolan.
Abu was at the helm of PRO-BAR for only about six months, during which four Army intelligence agents were killed by policemen in Jolo municipality in Sulu in a mysterious incident still awaiting closure.
The slain soldiers, Army Major Marvin Indammog and companions, Captain Irwin Managuelod, Sgt. Eric Velasco, Corporal Abdal Asula of the Intelligence Service Unit-9, were trying to locate then in Jolo religious extremists plotting a terror attack.
In less than two months after the atrocity, Jolo was rocked by two bombings in a day that killed 17 people, among them soldiers and policemen, and injured 78 others.
Abu is to assume a higher post in the Visayas area, according to key PRO-BAR officials.
The PRO-BAR covers the provinces of Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, both in mainland Mindanao, and the scattered provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, where there is culture of love for firearms either for status symbol, or for perpetuating political power.
Coscolan, assigned in PRO-BAR while a colonel yet, has directed Rodriguez to support extensively the peace process of President Rodrigo Duterte with the southern Moro sectors, personified by the newly-established Bangsamoro autonomous government.
The Bangsamoro chief minister, Hadji Ahod Ebrahim, is figurehead of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front that has two peace compacts with the Malacañang, the 2012 Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro and, subsequently, the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro.
Coscolan first paid Cotabato City Mayor Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi a courtesy visit at her office before leading the turnover of command in Camp SK Pendatun.
The 32-hectare Bangsamoro capitol compound is located in Cotabato City, not too distant from the People’s Palace, where the mayor’s office is located.
Guiani-Sayadi, chairperson of the Cotabato City peace and order council, and Coscolan agreed to cooperate in furthering domestic peace and security programs.