Philippine National Police Chief General Benjamin Acorda Jr. has met with the Chief Minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), Al Haj Murad Ebrahim, to discuss areas of cooperation that will improve the security situation in the area.
Gen. Acorda said Ebrahim’s visit last Friday at Camp Crame in Quezon City was part of BARMM’s commitment to peace and order in the region, amid the recent incident where several police officers and soldiers were wounded in a firefight with forces under the former vice mayor of Maimbung, Sulu, Pando Mudjasan.
“It was an official visit and at the same time to renew commitment to the path of peace especially in the BARMM area. We in the PNP recognized all the mechanisms that are in place as far as the peace and order situation in the area is concerned,” Acorda said in a statement.
“We also renewed our cooperation and active coordination. The real purpose for this is the de-escalation of hostilities in Mindanao and if possible, if we can put up some developments there without necessarily the cost of lives and other hostilities in the area,” he added.
The serving of arrest warrants against Mudjasan and his men, described by the PNP as a private armed group, led to a fierce gun battle and resulted in more than 6,000 local residents being forced to flee their homes.
The incident was blamed on a lack of coordination with officials in the area.
Mudjasan is still at large and the PNP is coordinating with BARMM in pursuing the former vice mayor, a former commander of the Moro National Liberation Front.
Acorda and Ebrahim also discussed security preparations for the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections slated Oct. 30 in the Bangsamoro region.“That is also one of the discussions that we had earlier together with the BARMM officials that we will help each other out. So we identified some areas where we see the presence of threat groups,” Acorda said.
The BARMM chief minister assured the PNP and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) that the regional government will do its best to maintain peace and order in the region.
“We all know that in the past years, BARMM has been very unstable. But now, gradually we are now returning to normal. We are assuring the PNP that we will help in the implementation of the peace and order situation in the area,” Ebrahim said in the PNP statement.
