2 Moro fronts join 6^th ID’s anniversary celebration

COTABATO CITY — Mindanao’s largest Army unit will be celebrating its 37^th founding anniversary with two Moro secessionist fronts that are now its partners in peace and development projects.

The activities related to the 37^th founding anniversary of the 6^th Infantry Division (ID)  started last week, initially capped off with a shooting competition among personnel of its units and a gathering of retired soldiers who were provided then with medical and dental services for free to honor their role in peace and security missions.

“We cannot thank them enough. We are grateful to all of them,” Major Gen. Antonio G. Nafarrete, commander of 6^th ID, told reporters.

Bangsamoro Labor Minister Muslimin G. Sema, who is chairman of the Moro National Liberation Front, told reporters that the 6^th ID had evolved from a state “fighting machine” out to quell Moro uprising in Central Mindanao into a partner of its erstwhile enemies, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

No fewer than 500 soldiers in different units of 6^th ID are either children, or relatives of former MNLF and MILF guerillas, who had been reintegrated into the local communities as part of the Mindanao peace process.

“Our members had figured in bloody clashes with units of the division in the 1980s until the early 1990s. Now we see its personnel visiting our enclaves in Central Mindanao as peacebuilders, rescuing people from floods, extending support, giving out food and medicines to calamity-affected families and helping resolve family feuds among big Moro families,” Mr. Sema said. — John Felix M. Unson