Cotabato execs, WestMinCom intensify peacebuilding efforts

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May 19, 2026 | 7:37pm

COTABATO CITY — Local executives, business groups and leaders of a former Moro rebel front assured on Tuesday, May 19, that they would help advance the peacebuilding initiatives of the Cotabato provincial government and the Western Mindanao Command, which both sides reaffirmed on Saturday, May 16.

Major Gen. Jose Vladimir Cagara, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, told reporters on Tuesday that his immediate-superior, Lt. Gen. Donald Gumiran, commander of WestMinCom and Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza met in Zamboanga City last Saturday, where they agreed to maximize efforts in fostering interfaith and cultural solidarity among Muslim, Christian and indigenous communities in Cotabato province.

The meeting between Taliño-Mendoza, chairperson of the Regional Development Council 12, and Gumiran was reportedly capped with exchanges of assurances to cooperate in furthering the gains of the national government’s Southern Mindanao peace process and sustaining the improving investment climate in Cotabato's 17 towns and its provincial capital, Kidapawan City.

South Cotabato Gov. Reynaldo Tamayo Jr., chairperson of the Regional Peace and Order Council 12, Bangsamoro Labor and Employment Minister Muslimin Sema and the Bangsamoro Business Council (BBC) separately pledged on Tuesday, May 19, support for the peace and security thrusts of the Cotabato provincial government, the mayors in the province, the WestMinCom and the 6th ID.

Sema, chairman of the Moro National Liberation Front, said that among the residents benefiting from the peace and security programs of the Cotabato provincial government, WestMinCom and the 6th ID are Muslim villagers in MNLF enclaves in the province, which are now recognized as “peace zones” under the front’s Sept. 2, 1996 peace agreement with the national government.

Cotabato province, under Region 12, has eight newly created towns under the Bangsamoro government, collectively called the Bangsamoro Special Geographic Area, where the Ministry of Labor and Employment-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and the BBC conduct community empowerment activities.

The Cotabato provincial government, the MoLE-BARMM, the office of Bangsamoro Chief Minister Abdulrauf Macacua and the lawyer-entrepreneur Ronald Hallid Dimacisil Torres,chairman of BBC, which has members in BARMM’s five provinces and three cities, as well as the Bangsamoro Board of Investments, are enticing prospective investors from other regions to put up viable business ventures in the eight Bangsamoro towns in the province to generate revenues for local government units and employment for residents.

Gumiran said they are thankful to the local executives and traditional community leaders in Cotabato for actively supporting the implementation in the province of the Small Arms and Weapons and Management (SALW) Program of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity and the 6th ID.

Cagara said local executives and officials of units of the 602nd Infantry Brigade had secured, through backchannel dialogues, the surrender by residents in different towns in Cotabato of 689 assault rifles, grenade and rocket launchers, M60 and .30 and .50 caliber machine guns, long-range bolt-action sniper rifles and more than 200 pistols since the start of the SALW Program's implementation in the province.