Road project traversing former Abu Sayyaf lair almost done

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Peace is now felt in all four corners of the once dangerous Sampinit Complex in Basilan as a result of a road project straddling through its forests where the Abu Sayyaf once ran a ruthless shadow government.

It was in the Sampinit Complex in the center of Basilan where the Abu Sayyaf terror group held no fewer than 300 captives in a span of 21 years, among them foreigners, many beheaded for non-payment of ransom.

Gerry Salapuddin, administrator of the Southern Philippines Development Authority, lauded Saturday Gov. Jim Salliman, the congressional representative in the province, Deputy Speaker Mujiv Hataman, and the Bangsamoro government for cooperating in the implementation of the Basilan Transcentral Road Project.

Salapuddin, who hails from Tuburan town in Basilan, hid in the jungles of Sampinit whenever military forces would chase him and his followers in the early ‘70s during which he was chairman of the Basilan Revolutionary Committee of the Moro National Liberation Front.

“I heard our provincial governor has a plan to protect the forests there as eco-tourism sites. I also learned there is a plan to transfer in Sampinit the camp of the 101st Infantry Brigade in Isabela City. That would be a good move,” Salapuddin said.

The 38-kilometer Basilan Transcentral Road, also known by its acronym BTR, shall interconnect Sumisip, the largest town in the province, to Santa Clara in Lamitan City and to the towns of Maluso and Tipo-Tipo, where the Abu Sayyaf once operated with impunity.

Brig. Gen. Eden Ugale, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, said Saturday it was the overland artery project and the cooperation of local officials and constituents in securing the surrender of more than 300 local Abu Sayyaf members in the past five years that catalyzed the tranquility in the Sampinit Complex.

“Our units are only behind them. The police and the military can’t do pacification missions extensively without the support of local executives. That is a fact, plain and simple,” Ugale said.

There are only four kilometers of the 38-kilometer BTR that workers are to finish in the coming months.

Brig. Gen. Domingo Gobway, commander of the Army’s 101st Infantry Brigade in Isabela City in Basilan, said there is peace and calm now in the Sampinit Complex.

The construction of the BTR that commenced more than two years ago was never disrupted by any security issue, according to Gobway.

Members of the business communities in Basilan’s two cities, Isabela and Lamitan, are anticipating an economic boom in villages along the BTR once opened to traffic.

The BTR was originally started by the now defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the Basilan District Engineering Office, the office of Salliman and the now Congressman Hataman, who was ARMM’s regional governor then.

“We ought to thank Regional Public Works Minister Eduard Guerra and the chief minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Ahod Ebrahim, for sustaining the Basilan Transcentral Road Project,” Salliman, now in his second term as Basilan governor, said Saturday.

The 29-year ARMM was replaced with BARMM in early 2019 as a result of 22 years of peace talks between the national government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, whose chairman, Ebrahim, is now at the helm of the Bangsamoro government.

“The MILF and the MNLF communities in Basilan, both helping us keep the peace now in our province, shall benefit a lot from the Basilan Transcentral Road project,” Salliman said.