COTABATO CITY — Officials are looking forward to an easier reintegration into society of hundreds of former Abu Sayyaf terrorists in Sulu with the impending completion of a P25-million reformatory center in the province.
“It is essential to the efforts of the military and the Philippine National Police to make these former enemies of the state become productive for them to thrive in peace in their barangays in Sulu,” Army Major Gen. Steve D. Crespillo, commander of the military’s Western Mindanao Command, told reporters on Wednesday as he expressed thanks to the office of Bangsamoro Local Government Minister Naguib G. Sinarimbo for initiating and bankrolling the project in Barangay Langhub, Patikul town.
Mr. Sinarimbo, who oversees the Rapid Emergency Action on Disaster Incidence contingent, said the facility will be completed in six weeks and shall function as a center for religious reorientation and livelihood education for Abu Sayyaf members who have returned to the fold of law.
The office of Sulu Gov. Abdusakur Mahail Tan, Sr., chairman of the multi-sector provincial peace and order council (POC), and the municipal governments under his administration, had worked out the surrender of 518 Abu Sayyaf terrorists and supporters in the past three years.
Patikul, one of the 18 towns in Sulu, was the scene of deadly clashes between Abu Sayyaf terrorists and government troops from the 1980s until 2020.
In a session earlier this month, the Sulu POC declared the province “Abu Sayyaf-free” via a resolution based on extensive assessments by local government units and peace-advocacy groups helping the Tan administration maintain law and order in the province. — John Felix M. Unson
