Maguindanao residents help address security issues

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines — Residents of Pandag town renounced terrorism and illegal drugs on Wednesday, inspired by their feats in neutralizing local terrorists and criminals in recent months.

Five large-scale peddlers of shabu were arrested in Barangay Kayaga in the municipality, a result of multi-sectoral cooperation, three hours before local leaders and traditional elders converged to sign a manifesto against terrorism and illegal drugs. 

Residents of Pandag, a small town without a monthly Internal Revenue Allotment, have markedly been active in helping authorities address domestic security issues.

Barangay officials and the local police in Pandag have the most number of successful community-driven anti-terror and anti-narcotics operations, from among all 36 Maguindanao towns, as a result of a continuing crackdown since President Rodrigo Duterte assumed the presidency on June 30, 2016.

Maguindanao’s police director, Senior Superintendent Agustin Tello, and the commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, Major Gen. Arnel Dela Vega, separately lauded on Thursday the local government unit of Pandag for embarking on the summit.

Pandag Mayor Zihan Mamalinta-Mangudadatu said during their summit in Buluan town, capital of Maguindanao, that she can vouch for the commitment of her constituent-barangay captains to Duterte’s war on terror and drugs.

Each of the eight barangay captains in Pandag have teams of volunteer community watchmen helping authorities guard against intrusion by outcast Islamic militants claiming allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

Pandag is not too far away from the southern side of the 220,000-hectare Liguasan Delta, a known haven of criminal gangs and where there is presence of the ISIS-inspired Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.

Even so, there has never been any incursion into Pandag by any BIFF group since it was founded in late 2010 by foreign-trained cleric Ameril Ombra Kato after he got booted from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front for insubordination and other heinous offenses.

Religious leaders, people from the academe and local business communities affixed their signatures to the manifesto of support to Duterte’s war on terror and drugs, an event that capped off the summit.

The Pandag municipal summit against terrorism and illegal drugs was initiated in support of the peacekeeping missions of the military, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and the provincial police office.

Mamalinta-Mangudadatu, Pandag’s acting vice mayor Dante Mamalinta, and all of their constituent-municipal councilors and barangay captains are not opposed to the martial law 

Duterte declared on May 23 after Maute and Abu Sayyaf gunmen laid siege and displayed the ISIS flag in several barangays in Marawi City.

“We are thankful to the police and the military for being there always to help us maintain law and order in our municipality,” the mayor said.

The summit was organized by the mayor with the help of Pandag’s local government operations officer, Zaiton Abas.

It was attended by Major Robert Betita and Col. Bismarck Soliba of the Army’s 1st Mechanized Infantry Brigade, Supt. Jibin Bongcayao of the Maguindanao police office, Juvenal Azurin of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-ARMM and Islamic theologian Zainudin Gumbila.