Philippine-Indonesia military exercises in Mindanao set

COTABATO CITY — Preparations are underway for the conduct before yearend in the Army’s Camp Siongco in nearby Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte of joint military proficiency drills among selected personnel the 6th Infantry Division and soldiers from Indonesia in the Army’s Camp Siongco in nearby Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte before the end of the year.

Major Gen. Alex Rillera, commander of 6th ID, told reporters on Monday that a group, led by an Indonesian military official, Col. Yoki Malinton Kurniafari, toured last week the training facilities of the division as familiarization exposure related with the conduct possibly in the last quarter of this year of the Training Activity Phil-Indo Strike 2024.

The upcoming TA Phil-Indo 2024 military exercise in Camp Siongco is a joint initiative of the Philippine Army and the Tentara Nasional Indonesia Angkatan Darat, or Indonesian National Military Land Force.

Yoki is commander of the Indonesian Army’s 11th Infantry Brigade.

Camp Siongco, where the headquarters of the 6th ID is located, is the largest Philippine Army installation in Mindanao.

“All was well in the three-day planning conference related to that forthcoming activity between our officers and the visiting Indonesia Army officials," Rillera said on Monday morning.

The military exercises shall partly focus on territorial defense operations and strategic planning activities.

Yoki and his subordinate Army officials were also briefed initially by counterparts in 6th ID on the division’s peacebuilding programs complementing Malacañang’s peace process with Moro communities in Central Mindanao provinces and cities that are covered by units of the division.

Indonesia, a member-state of the influential Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which is a bloc of more than 50 Muslim countries, including petroleum exporting states in the Middle East and North Africa, helped broker the Philippine government’s separate peace compacts with the Moro National Liberation Front and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Leaders of both fronts, as a result of Malacañang's Mindanao peace overtures, are now cooperating in managing the regional government of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao covering Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi and the cities of Lamitan, Marawi and Cotabato.