Basilan’s new role: ‘peace epicenter’

As an example of the biblical phrase to beat swords into plowshares, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said the once rebel-infested island province of Basilan would turn into one of the country’s food baskets under his term.

In his address during the unveiling of the Kasanyangan (Peace) Monument in Sumisip, Basilan on Saturday, Marcos emphasized the province’s progress from a “ground zero of war” to an “epicenter of peace.”

“Basilan has arrived at this junction of its proud history because it refused to continue to be a place of violence,” he said.

The President believes that Basilan has found lasting peace.

It is “the kind that endures because it uproots the causes of people’s discontent that purveyors of violence may want to exploit,” he said.

“This is the kind of peace that draws strength from the free will of the people instead of commanding their allegiance by force,” he noted.

Marcos assured that the government would help Basilan utilize its resource-rich agricultural potential, noting that this would boost its food security while ensuring lasting peace.

“A province that was once tainted by violence and terrorism is now a zone of peace, made possible not by military might alone, but more so by a people saying no to violence,” he stressed.

The President emphasized that peace is more than a cessation of hostilities but is the creation of a social order that values human dignity, improves lives and promotes progress.

Years of violence

Basilan has a long history of bloodletting involving rebels and extremists.

On 7 May 2000, eleven soldiers from the 32nd Special Forces of the Armed Forces of the Philippines were slain in an ambush by the Abu Sayyaf Group in Lantawan; in November of the same year, a clash in Tuburan, Basilan between militiamen and rebels, who had reinforced the armed followers of a village chief, killed two Moro Islamic Liberation Front militants and a militiaman.

On 29 January 2017, two children were killed and three others were injured when a bomb went off in Al-Barka. On 21 August 2017, nine people were killed, while sixteen others were wounded after Abu Sayyaf bandits attacked a village in Maluso.

On 31 July of the same year, a bomb exploded in a van, killing the suspected bomber, a soldier, four paramilitary men and four civilians, including a mother and her child, at a military checkpoint in Lamitan.

The latest episode of violence happened on 6 June last year when a military operation was conducted in Sumisip against two Dawlah Islamiya and ASG subleaders in Sulu and Basilan provinces, where two of their alleged followers were killed in a firefight.

Cool change

“Basilan’s new role is to now be at the forefront of the war against hunger. You have a land area twice the size of Singapore, blessed with rich soil, above all, more or less typhoon-free, which makes you an ideal bulwark in our fight for food security,” the President said.

Basilan is one of the island provinces in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao or BARMM.

Marcos assured that Basilan province could count on the government to “unlock” its full potential.

“When your agri-fishery potentials are unlocked, the whole country, not only Basilan, not only the BARMM, but the whole country will benefit,” he said.

Further, Marcos said his administration is committed to making Basilan province “no longer an island far south, but a very strategic island at the front” and the center of national goals and Philippine transformation.

“Your future and fate are therefore intertwined with the nation’s. Please be assured that we will play our role as partners of Basilan’s great leap forward,” he added.

The President said the government will unleash the province’s potential.

“It must be woven now into the fabric of social life. In the case of Basilan, the harnessing of its potential — a land blessed with resources and a people rich in talent—is the key to enduring peace, one that is based on common progress and shared prosperity,” he said.

Marcos led the distribution of eight motorcycles to former rebels for their livelihood on the sidelines of the Panabangan Si Kasanyangan event.

Arms decommissioned

The President, together with Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, National Security Council Secretary Eduardo Año, Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation, and Unity Secretary Carlito Galvez, BARMM Chief Minister Al-hajj Murad Ebrahim, Basilan Gov. Hadjiman Hataman Salliman and other BARMM officials witnessed the destruction of surrendered firearms.

The President’s visit to the province highlighted the government’s implementation of the Small Arms and Light Weapons and Assistance for Security, Peace, Integration, and Recovery for Advanced Human Security program in BARMM.

Under this initiative, the government has facilitated the surrender of more than 400 firearms in exchange for livelihood opportunities, the documentation of more than 4,000 high-powered and small weapons, and the processing of almost 200 licenses to own and possess firearms.