Basilan officials, military command unite for secure BARMM elections

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The military’s Western Mindanao Command and the multi-sector Basilan Provincial Peace and Order Council are to cooperate in supporting the efforts of the Commission on Elections to ensure peaceful and clean Bangsamoro parliamentary polls in the island province on September 14.

Basilan, one of the five provinces in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, has 11 towns and two cities, Isabela and Lamitan, where there are bastions of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Moro National Liberation Front that have separate peace compacts with the national government.

Army Major Gen. Jose Vladimir Cagara, acting commander of the WestMinCom based in Zamboanga City, and Gov. Mujiv Hataman met at the Basilan provincial capitol in Lamitan City on Tuesday morning and agreed to jointly support the Comelec’s September 14 Bangsamoro parliamentary elections security thrusts.

Hataman, as governor of Basilan, is also the presiding chairperson of the peace and order council in the province, which is composed of sectoral leaders, local executives and representatives from their constituent Muslim and Christian religious communities.

"Me and my constituent-local executives in all areas in our province want credible and safe regional elections. We are ready to help the Commission on Elections achieve that,"  Hataman told Cagara during their meeting at the governor's office in Lamitan City.

The Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, the Armed Forces and the Comelec are now all set for the September 14 parliamentary electoral exercise in BARMM, the first ever since the region was established in 2019, replacing the 27-year-old less empowered, now defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Hataman is optimistic of a peaceful and safe election in their province owing to its having been declared last year as totally cleared from Abu Sayyaf terrorists by officials of the Army’s 101^st Infantry Brigade, which has units in all of its towns and two cities, and the Basilan Provincial Police Office, a result of a provincewide inter-agency, multi-sector peacebuilding activities.

Hataman had assured Cagara of his administration’s full support to the September 14 BARMM elections security agenda of the Comelec, the WestMinCom and PRO-BAR.

The Army’s 10th and 4th Infantry Divisions based in Mawab, Davao de Oro in Region 11 and in Cagayan de Oro City in Region 10, respectively, had separately dispatched in recent weeks big contingents to BARMM to help secure polling sites on September 14.

Cagara said he is thankful to Hataman and his constituent-local executives for their commitment to help push forward the election security agenda of the Comelec, the WestMinCom and the Philippine National Police.

The Police Regional Office 9, whose regional headquarters is Zamboanga City, deployed to Basilan hundreds of personnel on Monday to augment police units in the province, now gearing up for poll election duties.