6ID commander visits MILF's Camp Darapanan
September 20, 2016 | 3:44pm
MAGUINDANAO, Philippines -- Army officials and leaders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front dined together on Tuesday in Camp Darapanan, the first time since the government and the MILF began peace talks in 1997.
The meeting, held at the MILF’s main bastion in Sultan Kudarat town, was jointly organized by Maj. Gen. Carlito Galvez Jr. and Al-Mansur Gambar, chief of the MILF’s Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces.
During the meeting, Galvez, who took command of the Maguindanao-headquartered 6th Infantry Division this month, and Gambar assured each other cooperation in enforcing the now 19-year-long ceasefire in Central Mindanao.
Galvez is well-versed in dealing with the MILF, having served as chairman of the government’s Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities, which deals with a counterpart panel from the rebel group.
Gambar, an ethnic Maguindanaon who hails from Kabuntalan town in Maguindanao, said they are grateful to Galvez for personally visiting them in Camp Darapanan to assure them of his commitment to the Mindanao peace process.
Galvez, who graduated from the Philippine Military Academy in 1986, was the first 6th ID commander to do so.
“Peace is something we cannot impose by use of force. It can only be developed through diplomacy, cooperation and understanding,” Galvez said in a message to MILF officials at the dialogue.
Predecessors of Galvez, the now retired generals Rey Ardo and Romeo Gapuz, had both toured Camp Darapanan, but only as guests to events organized jointly by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process and the MILF central committee.
“The coming over of General Galvez to Camp Darapanan is a clear indication of the 6th ID’s commitment to the ceasefire agreement,” Gambar said during the meeting.
Units of the 6th ID figured in deadly encounters with MILF forces in Central Mindanao in decades past.
The 6th ID operates in the adjoining Central Mindanao provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, North Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat, where there are more than 20 MILF communities protected by the July 1997 Agreement on General Cessation of Hostilities between the government and the MILF.
There has not been a single encounter between the military and the MILF in the 6th ID’s area of operations since late 2010, a feat peace advocacy groups attribute to the close security coordination between military units and local MILF commanders.
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