New commander of 1st Mech bde vowed replicate Lanao aims and geared towards peace for Maguindanao

New commander of 1^st Mech bde vowed replicate Lanao aims and geared towards peace for Maguindanao

By Jun Enriquez

Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Maguindanao (January 27, 2016) – About a month ago, Col. Fel Budiongan, Philippine Army, was assigned as the newly Commander at the 1^st Mechanized Infantry “Maaasahan” Brigade, Philippine Army based here. He is a replacement of the promoted General Gener del Rosario, now assigned in AFP command center, camp Emilio Aguinaldo in Manila. Col. Budongan started his tour of duty in his present assignment on December 28, 2015 and exactly one month to this date. Prior to his assignment in Maguindanao, he was the Deputy Commander of the 2^nd Mechanized Infantry “Magbalantay” Brigade based in Iligan City.  Budiongan said that the 1^st Mechanized Brigade is located in a hostile environment in Maguindanao because it is a haven of the lawless Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), the breakaway group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

 

Col. Fel Budiongan, Commander, 1st Mechanized Infantry
"Maaasahan" Brigade, Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Maguindanao

Col. Budiongan said that his men in the detachments along the National highway from Cotabato going to General Santos were always harassed by the lawless elements from BIFF but the situation is manageable and controllable. He said that the situation in Maguindanao compared in Lanao del Norte and Iligan City have a big difference. In Lanao del Norte, the people are already capacitated on the awareness in peace-building with the civil society, media and multi-stakeholders united as one with common understanding of peace. The role of the Military in Lanao del Norte is now easily to maintain the gains of peace. Unlike in Maguindanao will still have a lot of things to do to start from the scratch in working for peace. People in the area are suspicious when there is visitor roaming around because they will tag as spy against them. . In the past few days the BIFF attacked the detachments of his men without knowing what really the motive of their attacks.

Col. Budiongan is now started working with the key traditional leaders in communities to establish good relationships among them, the political leaders and media to work for sustainable and lasting peace and development in the area. They became busy at the moment to mediate and establish peace covenants with opposing politicians to maintain peace and order during the election period, come May 9, 2016 elections.

The mantra of the 1^st Mechanized Infantry “Maaasahan” Brigade is “the people’s partner for peace and development in Maguindanao.” Budiongan said that they will continue to work for peace despite the sporadic BIFF attacks however the situation is very manageable. The first important thing they did was to secure the national highway in order for the travellers will freely pass without any burden to transport their business and daily routine of the people. Budiongan said they have only secured 8 municipalities as the area of responsibility (AOR) of the 1^st Mechanized Brigade but the entire Province deployed 4 Brigades. There is a need to deploy more troops in the area to maintain peace and order, and security.

The eight municipalities covered in the AOR of the 1^st Mechanized Brigade are Datu Odin Sinsuat, Datu Anggal Midtimbang, Guindulungan, Talitay, Talayan, Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Datu Salibo and Datu Piang. The most critical area of the eight municipalities is the Gindolungan because it is the haven of the BIFF with most significant in numbers and second critical town is the Datu Salibong. Budiongan said that he already conducted courtesy calls to the chief executives in the eight municipalities and attended the Provincial peace and order council (PPOC) meetings held and presided by Maguindanao Governor Toto Mangudadato.

Col. Budiongan said that the municipal Mayors are very cooperative towards peace and development. He said whenever the Mayors had problems will immediately call for assistance in the Brigade. On the other hand, the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) was able to register cooperatives especially the women sector in Datu Saudi Ampatuan. The local government also gave Birth certificates to the constituency because mostly of the people in this town have no birth certificates. The Datu Saudi Ampatuan Mayor Samsodin Dimaukom, was working seriously in giving birth certificates because most of the people in Datu Saudi Ampatuan have no birth certificates.

The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) joint task force with the military and police in the area was able to establish check points, and effectively imposed gun ban started January 10, 2016, led by the Election supervisor Atty. Udtog Tago. The task force will conduct series of meetings and formulate action plan to be implemented during the election period.

Col. Budiongan added that his plan is to replicate in Maguindanao the gains of peace in Lanao del Norte and Iligan City with manifestation of unity among the Civil society, media, military, Police, religious sector and multi-stakeholders to maintain peace and move forward for development, and achieving such goals through the principle of the whole of nation approach under the Internal Peace and Security Program (IPSP) of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). He said the Military will served as the catalyst to encourage the people in Maguindanao on exerting efforts to help build peace coming from the traditional leaders, police, local government, Civil society, non-government Organizations (NGOs), peoples organizations(POs), Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), religious sector and other stakeholders. Photo by Jun Enriquez