Army collects 61 more unlicensed combat weapons in Basilan

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The Army’s 101st Infantry Brigade has collected 61 more combat weapons turned in by residents of two cities and eight towns in Basilan in support of a local disarmament campaign complementing Malacañang’s Mindanao peace process.

Army Lt. Gen. Antonio Nafarrete, commander of the military's Western Mindanao Command, told reporters on Saturday, April 12, that the 61 firearms were surrendered to Brig. Alvin Luzon of the 101st Infantry Brigade and Basilan Gov. Hadjiman Salliman by the local government units in the cities of Isabela and Lamitan and the municipalities of Tuburan, Akbar, Sumisip, Maluso, Lantawan, Tabuan-Lasa, and Hadji Muhtamad last Wednesday, April 9.

Local officials said the firearms were yielded voluntarily by owners in compliance with the Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) Management Program being implemented in Basilan since last year by Luzon, Salliman, peace-advocacy groups in the province and the office of Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity Carlito Galvez Jr.

Nafarrete said Luzon and officials of the battalions under him, Salliman, who is chairman of the multi-sector Basilan Provincial Peace and Order Council, and local executives in the two cities and 11 towns in the province had collected from constituents, via backchannel dialogues, no fewer than 300 unlicensed firearms over the past nine months.

The SALW Management Program is parallel with the normalization agenda of the national government’s peace overture with the local communities in the Bangsamoro region.

It is also being implemented extensively by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity and the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, led by Major Gen. Donald Gumiran, in six provinces and five cities in Central Mindanao where there is presence of the Moro National Liberation Front and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front that have separate peace compacts with the national government.

Leaders of both fronts are together managing a number of agencies under the Bangsamoro government and are actively helping the 6th ID and the OPAPRU implement the SALW Management Program in the provinces of Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur and in Cotabato City, the capital of the autonomous region.