COTABATO CITY — Residents of five barangays in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte, turned over 19 more combat weapons to the Marines on Saturday, December 14, including a .50 caliber machine gun and grenade launchers.
Major Gen. Antonio Nafarrete, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, told reporters on Sunday, December 15, that the unlicensed firearms and machinegun were surrendered by owners in support of the 6th Infantry Division's Small Arms and Light Weapons Program (SALW Program), complementing Malacañang’s peace overture with southern Moro communities.
Nafarette said the combat weapons were collected from Moro and ethnic Teduray residents of Barangays Dinaig Proper, Mompong, Linek, Badak, Kusiong and Tapian by Datu Odin Sinsuat Mayor Lester Sinsuat, Lt. Col. Lester Mark Baky, commanding officer of the 5th Marine Battalion, and Brig. Gen. Romulo Quemado II of the 1st Marine Brigade.
Units of the Navy’s 1st Marine Brigade deployed in Maguindanao del Norte and Cotabato City are under the operational control of the 6th ID.
Nafarrete said residents of Datu Odin Sinsuat agreed to surrender their weapons after Sinsuat, Baky, Quemado and officials of the Maguindanao del Norte Provincial Police Office had relayed to them the intricacies of the SALW Program of the 6th ID via backchannel dialogues.
The SALW Program was pioneered by the office of Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity, first implemented in the now peaceful Basilan province with the help of local executives, among them Gov. Hadjiman Salliman and Mayor Roderick Furigay of Lamitan City in the island province.
The 5th Marine Battalion and 6th ID’s 6th Civil Military Operations Battalion, under Army Lt. Col. Roden Orbon, had earlier taken custody of more than 60 rifles, pistols, rocket and grenade launchers surrendered in the past four months by residents of different barangays in Cotabato City, the capital of the Bangsamoro region.