Reviving the 12-yearlong abandoned community in Basilan
By Rene V. Carbayas
Hope can always find its way through in desperate conditions and seemingly helpless and distressed community left abandoned for twelve years.
The Calugusan remote community in Lantawan, Basilan has paid the price of long-decade old conflict that residents were forced to flee their homes years back. Conflicts ignited between families over land, politics, old grudge, and even petty quarrels and squabbles between youth. From a lively, peaceful, tranquil, and progressive Calugusan community, the barangay became a ghost town.
Fast forward. When the area was turned over to the care of the 4th Special Forces Battalion of the Philippine Army in Basilan, government forces were clueless in dealing with the conflicts that long hovered over the lives of the people. The paradigm shift in the army’s engagement of winning the peace and translates their arms confrontation with “arms collaboration” as an approach to engage various sectors in bringing peace and development in conflict-ridden areas.
Hope can always find its way through in desperate conditions and seemingly helpless and distressed community left abandoned for twelve years.
The Calugusan remote community in Lantawan, Basilan has paid the price of long-decade old conflict that residents were forced to flee their homes years back. Conflicts ignited between families over land, politics, old grudge, and even petty quarrels and squabbles between youth. From a lively, peaceful, tranquil, and progressive Calugusan community, the barangay became a ghost town.
Fast forward. When the area was turned over to the care of the 4th Special Forces Battalion of the Philippine Army in Basilan, government forces were clueless in dealing with the conflicts that long hovered over the lives of the people. The paradigm shift in the army’s engagement of winning the peace and translates their arms confrontation with “arms collaboration” as an approach to engage various sectors in bringing peace and development in conflict-ridden areas.
With the help of some fraternity groups based at the University of the Philippines, through the efforts of BGen Peter C. Suchianco JAGS (Res), a more conducive school has been completed. And on January 30, 2021, it was turned over to the community and the local education authorities. Gen. Suchianco said that they draw inspiration from children and the desire of the community to rebuild their community and live in peace. That is why, most of the project that their group is implementing in Basilan include a playground. Suchianco believes that playground gives children the opportunity to enjoy life and meet other children and build friendship, which is important in building a future partnership among them to develop their future community.
Sustaining the gains
The works of the Fourth Special Forces of the Philippine Army may seem easy for outsiders. But a lot of the successes, little as they may, resulted from the many sacrifices and hard work that the soldiers had gone through, from securing the people, negotiating and convincing warring parties, engaging the local government and institutions, and more importantly, assuring the people that there is hope. These are daunting tasks.
Winning the people is winning the peace; will always be part of the slogan of the military in Basilan. More people’s lives, especially in remote barangays with some history of conflict are embracing the hope that they see out of the efforts of the military and its partners. But this hope entails much of the efforts from other stakeholders, like the government agencies, non-government organizations, the local community themselves, and more importantly the working local government.
The military has learned its lesson the hard way, to never go solo in winning the peace. From an armed confrontation solution to peace, the army in Basilan catapulted a paradigm of “arms collaboration” – the whole-of-government and whole-of-nation approach for a lasting peace in Basilan. (EDT/RVC/PIA9-Basilan/20210201)
