Students visit former NPA stronghold in Bukidnon

Upgrade to High-Speed Internet for only ₱1499/month!

Enjoy up to 100 Mbps fiber broadband, perfect for browsing, streaming, and gaming.

Visit Suniway.ph to learn

May 9, 2026 | 5:10pm

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Soldiers, local executives, tribal leaders and a government university have pooled together to help evolutionary biology learners in their periodic field exposures in highland tribal enclaves to boost their studies on insights related to the subject.

Radio reports on Saturday, May 9, stated that personnel of the Alpha Company of the Army’s 89th Infantry Battalion and teachers from the Central Mindanao University in Maramag, Bukidnon accompanied 130 students to Barangay Magkalungay in Mount Malimumu in San Fernando town in the province for a two-day exposure to the area.

The two-day activity of the CMU students in Mount Malimumu shall soon be followed by more study tours in the area that the university administration shall organize, according to radio reports. The CMU campus is located in Barangay Musuan in Maramag town in Bukidnon.

The highland Barangay Magkalungay in Mount Malimumu, an ancestral domain of the Tigwahanon-Manobo tribe, was a former bastion of the New People’s Army, now a recognized peace zone, where the mayor of San Fernando, Rogelio Yeke, and leaders of the local indigenous communities have joint peacebuilding and security programs.

Two ranking tribal leaders, Datu Tagyaman Sinangkap, an appointed indigenous peoples mandatory representative of Barangay Magkalungay, and their barangay tribal chieftain, Bae Layden Esteban, helped the 89^th IB and teachers in the state-run CMU and the mayor of San Fernando facilitate the on-field study of the 130 evolutionary biology learners.

The 89th IB is under the 1003rd Infantry Brigade, a component-unit of the 10th Infantry Division, whose commander, Major Gen. Alvin Luzon, is an active supporter of peace, religious and cultural-solidarity programs involving students, indigenous people and the local government units in far-flung areas.

Lt. Col. Antonio Bulao, commanding officer of the 89th IB, said they are glad to have supported the field trip of the students from CMU to Barangay Magkalungay in Mount Malimumu, off-limits to outsiders before, when NPA guerillas were still operating in the area with impunity.

All of the NPAs from ethnic groups in San Fernando and Maramag towns who have surrendered and pledged allegiance to the government in recent years have been reintroduced to the local communities through the efforts of local executives, the 89th ID, state line agencies and the provincial government of Bukidnon.