Duterte reshuffles senior Army officers in southern Mindanao

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The Army general who helped secure the recent surrender of dozens of misguided Islamic militants in Basilan is now assistant division commander of the 6th Infantry Division.

Brig. Gen. Juvymax Uy of the 104th Brigade will replace Brig. Gen. Cirilo Thomas Donato, 6th ID’s assistant division commander.

Donato will assume as deputy chief of the Western Mindanao Command in Zamboanga City under Lt. Gen. Arnel Dela Vega.

Dela Vega was 6th ID’s commander before President Rodrigo Duterte designated him WestMinCom chief last April.

Donato, who graduated from the Philippine Military Academy in 1985, was involved in Malacañang’s peace process with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front as chairman of the government’s ceasefire committee while in 6th ID.

The committee deals with a counterpart in the MILF in addressing peace and security issues in conflict flashpoint areas in southern provinces.

The 6th ID, whose command center is in Camp Siongco in Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao, covers central Mindanao’s adjoining North Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat provinces and several municipalities in Lanao del Sur, where there are government-recognized MILF camps now called “peace zones.”

Units of 6th ID are also scattered in Maguindanao, where provincial officials are helping contain the spread of misguided Islamic militancy through education and livelihood programs meant to improve the productivity of sectors vulnerable to indoctrination by local IS-inspired blocs.

Uy, who belong to PMA’s Class ’89, is no stranger to central Mindanao.

He had worked as senior tactical staff of the Task Force GenSan covering General Santos City before he got to the helm of the 104th Brigade based in Tabiawan area in Isabela, Basilan.

Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao said Saturday he is thankful to Uy for having managed the civil-military operations of Army units in Basilan.

More than 30 members of the Islamic State-Inspired Abu Sayyaf in Basilan surrendered while Uy was commander of the 104th Brigade, a post he held for more than a year.

The ARMM regional peace and order council and the provincial government of Basilan had secured the surrender of almost 200 Abu Sayyaf terrorists in the past 24 months with the help of Uy and his predecessors in the 104th Brigade.

The now reforming former Abu Sayyaf gunmen are being reintegrated into Basilan’s mainstream communities through joint socio-economic interventions by different ARMM regional agencies and WestMinCom.

The reassignment of Uy and Donato was ordered on Friday by Duterte via a directive channeled through Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana.

A Muslim officer of 6th ID, Col. Markton Abo, said they are certain Uy can efficiently help Brig. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana and Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu pursue their bilateral peace program enticing members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters to return the fold of law and reform.

Sobejana, also a graduate of PMA, has been serving as commander of 6th ID since May 25.

“Gen. Uy has had extensive engagements focused on propagation of `culture of peace’ among erstwhile Abu Sayyaf members in Basilan. Surely, he will continue here in Maguindanao province what he had started there,” said Abo, 6th ID’s civil-military operations officer.

Like the Abu Sayyaf, the BIFF, operating in Maguindanao, North Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat provinces, also uses the black Islamic State flag as revolutionary banner.

Eighteen BIFF terrorists operating in the 220,000-hectare Liguasan Delta in central Mindanao surrendered to 6th ID in batches from between April to early June this year through the intercession of local officials and officers of battalions and brigades under the division.