Army, police expand intelligence cooperation in Regions 11, 12

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The Army’s 10th Infantry Division and the regional police offices in Regions 11 and 12 have strengthened intelligence collaboration to boost the joint police-military peacekeeping efforts in both areas.

All towns and cities covered by the 10th ID, including hinterlands in Region 12, had been declared, one after another, from 2024 to early this year, totally cleared of the presence of the New People’s Army, a feat achieved via multi-sector, non-hostile backchannel peace initiatives by the division, the Police Regional Office 12 and local executives.

Combined units of the Police Regional Office 11, under Brig. Gen. Benigno Guzman, and the 10th ID had arrested, in separate operations in different areas in Region 11 in recent months, more than 50 foreigners and their Filipino cohorts in operating illegal online gambling networks and in mining copper and gold in far-flung areas without permits.

Radio reports on Saturday, November 14, stated that officials of the PRO 11, under Guzman, the 10th ID, led by its commander, Major Gen. Alvin Luzon, the Philippine Coast Guard and the National Intelligence Agency met at PRO 11’s headquarters in Davao City for their 2026 last quarter intelligence initiative workshop, where they reportedly agreed to expand their cooperation in law-enforcement activities.

Army and police officials told reporters on Saturday that the workshop partly delved into exchanges of ideas by participants on how to help local executives boost their community-based peacebuilding initiatives meant to sustain the socio-economic improvements in their respective towns and cities.

Two provincial governors in Region 12, Reynaldo Tamayo, Jr. of South Cotabato and his counterpart in Cotabato, Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza, separately assured on Saturday of their support to the efforts of the 10th ID in making its security intelligence partnership with PRO 11 and PRO 12.

The 10th ID has units in Region 12's Cotabato and Sarangani provinces and in General Santos, one of the four cities in the region.

“We in the local government units need to support that effort to the best we can,” said Tamayo, chairperson of the multi-sector Regional Peace and Order Council 12.

Mendoza, now a second-term governor in Cotabato province, is the chairperson of the influential multi-sector Regional Development Council 12.

Tamayo said the RPOC 12 is supporting the joint peacekeeping missions of the PRO 12, the 10th ID and the 6th Infantry Division, under Major Gen. Edgar Catu.  

He said the intelligence network of PRO 12 and the two Army divisions is also backed by local executives, traditional Moro and non-Moro indigenous community leaders in Region 12’s South Cotabato, Sarangani, Cotabato, and Sultan Kudarat provinces and in its four cities, Kidapawan, Tacurong. Koronadal and General Santos.

“It was for the strong intelligence and peacebuilding partnership of local executives, the Police Regional Office 12, the 10th Infantry Division and the 6th Infantry Division that municipalities in our region got liberated from the New People’s Army," Tamayo said.