All set for P-Noy's visit to MILF camp

From the Philippine News Agency (Feb 10): All set for P-Noy's visit to MILF camp

Yellow and green “bandala” (flags) and warm welcome await President Aquino and his party when he steps on the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) bailiwick in Maguindanao on Monday.

The yellow and green flags, the favorite colors of the President and the MILF, respectively, are beautifully arranged along the road leading to periphery of Camp Darapanan in Simuay, Sultan Kudarat Maguindanao as the Chief Executive brings government services to the MILF communities.

Long deprived of genuine government service, the MILF communities will avail of basic health, education, social service, technical education, livelihood, among others once the “Sahajatra Bangsamoro” is launched by President Aquino Monday morning here.

Ghadzali Jaafar, speaking for the MILF, said the group was all prepared for the historic event that would strengthen the stakeholders’ desire to achieve peace in strife-torn Mindanao. “Our security measures are ready,” Jaafar, MILF vice chair for political affairs, told reporters. “Our uniformed but unarmed MILF fighters will be securing the road networks leading to the ceremony site side by side with the Army,” said Jaafar.

About two dozens armored personnel carriers have been deployed around the MILF camp that straddles through three adjoining villages, including portions of the Cotabato-Davao and Cotabato-Marawi highways.

Elements of the 40th, 7th and 37th Infantry Battalions have been providing security measures in the five kilometer radius of the venue with the Presidential Security Group (PSG)around the Bangsamoro Leadership and Management Institute where President Aquino would launch “Sajahatra Bangsamoro." “Sajahatra” is an Arabic term which means “peace, prosperity and unity.”

Two dozens of police and Army checkpoints will secure the seven kilometer road from Cotabato City to Barangay Simuay here. Two navy boats are on standby at Polloc Port, some eight kilometers from Camp Darapanan.

“Peace is at hand,” exclaimed one streamer along the highway. “We love you P-Noy,” another streamer said. Most of the streamers welcoming the President are in yellow written on color green cloth, obviously a combination of the President’s favorite color and that of the MILF's.

Colonel Dickson Hermoso, speaking for the regional Army division, said no threat have so far been monitored relative to the activity on Monday but the Army and the police have been placed on heightened alert since Saturday.

This is the third time that President Aquino and MILF chief Al Haj Murad will be meeting.

In June last year, both met in Japan during which the President informed the MILF leader about his determination to come up with a comprehensive, political agreement acceptable to all in Mindanao.

The second was during the signing of the Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro in Malacanang last October where Murad first set foot in the government’s center of power.

This time, its President Aquino’s turn to set foot in an MILF territory to “nurture the seeds of peace planted in Malacanang last October 15.” “There’s no turning back, peace is already in the air here,” Jaafar told reporters but admitted a lot of things are still to be done. “The good thing is we have started it right here, right now,” Jaafar added.

After the launching of Sajahatra Bangsamoro, the President is expected to join the military initiated fluvial caravan for peace along Rio Grande de Mindanao with 150 colorful bancas and 2,000 people participating. Maj. Gen. Caesar Ordoyo, 6th ID chief, said the fluvial parade was the military’s contribution to the attainment of peace in Mindanao.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=496100