6th Infantry Division’s new commander assumes post

COTABATO CITY — The new commander of Mindanao’s largest Army division, who assumed leadership on Tuesday, November 11, will work with leaders of two former Moro secessionist fronts on community programs aimed at sustaining the gains of the national government’s Southern Mindanao peace process.

The chief of the Philippine Army, Lt. Gen. Antonio Nafarrete, officiated on Tuesday morning the assumption of Major Gen. Jose Vladimir Cagara as commander of the 6th Infantry Division at Camp Siongco in Barangay Awang in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte, in the presence of Bangsamoro regional officials and local executives from across Maguindanao del Sur and Maguindanao del Norte provinces.

Cagara replaced Major Gen. Donald Gumiran, who was designated last month as chief of the military’s Western Mindanao Command, covering Region 9, parts of Region 12 and all the five provinces and three cities in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Naferrete and Gumiran separately told reporters after the event, attended by two provincial governors, Tucao Mastura of Maguindanao del Norte and Ali Midtimbang of Maguindanao del Sur and BARMM’s chief minister, Abdulrauf Macacua, that Cagara would reach out to officials of the Bangsamoro government and leaders of the Moro National Liberation Front and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and support their peacebuilding activities in Central Mindanao.

Macacua said the MILF will willingly complement the 6th Infantry Division’s civil-military operations by supporting essential programs. These efforts will focus on addressing security issues through multi-sector dialogues in BARMM’s Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur provinces, as well as in the regional capital, Cotabato City.

“Community dialogues to promote interfaith and cultural solidarity among all communities in these two provinces and in Cotabato City are the best means of maintaining law and order in these areas,” Macacua, who is chief of the MILF’s Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces, said.

The chairman of the MNLF’s central committee, BARMM Labor and Employment Minister Muslimin Sema, said all of their members in Central Mindanao shall help implement all peace and security programs of the 6th ID, with Cagara at its helm.

“We have a peace agreement with the national government that compels us to do so,” Sema said.

Cagara said he would also seek the support of all local executives in restoring normalcy in areas cleared by the 6th ID, the police and local government units of the now-defunct allies Dawlah Islamiya and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.  Both groups have been implicated in all deadly bombings in Central Mindanao over the past 10 years and are known for fomenting hatred against non-Muslims.