MANILA (Juan Magtanggol / 23 Jul) A former Philippine military chief praised Sunday plans to split the Zamboanga City-based Southern Command headquarters into two to make it more effective in fighting communist insurgency and terrorism in the restive southern island of Mindanao.
"That's beneficial because the military will now be more effective in handling the threats in Mindanao. That's good at least the Southern Command will be more focus in addressing whatever problems as far as security is concerned," Gen. Narciso Abaya, a former Armed Force chief, told the Zamboanga Journal.
Abaya, war veteran in Mindanao, also served as commander of the Southern Command at the height of the anti-insurgency campaign in the 1990s.
He said there was an earlier plan to put the military forces in Mindanao under two controls of two Southern Command headquarters, but it did not push through for a still unknown reason.
Senior military officials said the Army's 1st Infantry Division based in Labangan town in Zamboanga del Sur province would also be relocated to Zamboanga City as soon as the two Southern Command headquarters are transferred to Davao and Zamboanga del Sur provinces this year.
Aside from the Southern Command and the 1st Infantry Division, Mindanao is also home to the 4th and 6th Infantry Division, a marine and air force headquarters and two naval bases. More than half of the Armed Forces' 120,000-strong soldiers are deployed in the southern Philippines where they are battling the New People's Army and the Abu Sayyaf group.
President Gloria Arroyo on Friday ordered the division of the Southern Command into two unified commands "for more effective troop management and control.
At the same time, she instructed new Armed Forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon to revive the Office of the Civil-Military Operations in southern Philippines to ensure "fast and effective troop management" in Mindanao.
They were among the reforms in the military recommended by former military chief Gen. Generoso Senga.
She added that she approved the recommendations to improve the capability of the AFP to maintain peace and order in Mindanao and ensure economic development in the area.
Arroyo said the revival of the office of civil military operations in the region became necessary after the AFP created a new division in the Davao area. "But we will go beyond that, we will divide the Southern Command into two unified commands for more effective troop management and control," she said.
The new set up of the Southern Command, Esperon said, will make it more effective in addressing the present security situation in Mindanao.
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