AFP to continue dev't projects in South despite attacks

MANILA, Philippines - The military yesterday vowed to continue implementing development projects in Mindanao despite the recent attacks staged by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Maj. Emmanuel Garcia, spokesman of the Armed Forces’ National Development Support Command (NADESCOM), said these projects include school buildings, roads and a hospital.

“The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) will continue its peace and development projects and will pour more in Mindanao despite the recent incidents involving armed groups where a number of government troops were killed,” Garcia told The STAR.

Garcia said several AFP projects are being undertaken in Basilan, where 19 soldiers were killed by MILF rebels and lawless elements.

He said school buildings are being constructed in the towns of Malamawi and Maluso by the Navy’s Construction Battalion and are expected to be completed in a couple of weeks.

He said the Basilan circumferential road is nearing completion while the Army’s 55th Engineer Brigade would begin anytime the site development for the Basilan General Hospital.

Garcia said classrooms are also being built in Sulu, believed to be a haven of Abu Sayyaf bandits.

“In Sulu province, several school buildings are also being constructed this time by Army engineers of the 55th Engineer Brigade with the help of the Philippine Marines,” he said.

Garcia said the projects under their security plan “Bayanihan” and the “Pamana” program of the Office of the Presidential Assistant on Peace Process are on track.

He said the Army’s 52nd Engineer Brigade will construct 23 classrooms in the Davao region, particularly in Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental. The region is one of the areas with a huge concentration of communist rebels.

The military and the Social Welfare department are also planning to build 120 core shelters in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Farm-to-market roads will also be constructed in Mindanao starting early next year through the AFP’s partnership with the Agriculture and Public Works departments.

“The AFP is engaging in public-private partnership to build more peace and development projects in Mindanao,” Garcia said.

NADESCOM data show that the military and its private donors have completed 40 projects worth P67 million in the first nine months of 2011. About 120 barangays in 11 provinces have benefited from these projects.

The AFP has completed more than 1,700 rural development projects since 2005.

Nineteen soldiers died and 14 others were wounded after members of the Special Forces Company encountered about 400 MILF fighters in Sitio Baisung, Barangay Cambug in Al-Barka, Basilan last Oct. 18.

Thirteen of the soldiers were killed in the clash while the rest were seized before they were slain. The MILF has blamed the military for the clash, saying the soldiers attacked its territory even without provocation.