PJAMESTREMEDAL
Associate editor
PAGADIAN CITY—Governor Aurora Cerilles has convened the Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) to deliberate and pass resolutions related to the present volatile peace situation in Zamboanga del Sur.
Board member Ernesto Mondarte, chair of the peace and order committee, represented Cerilles in the said meeting.
Mondarte, when interviewed, said the resolutions the PPOC passed and approved were attentive to the provincial government’s support to the no-nonsense campaign initiated by both the military and police in the province against lawless elements.
Their meeting, Mondarte added, likewise kept in mind the unpredictable situation of Zamboanga del Sur, being a coastal province and susceptible to attacks and aggression from whatever lawless elements, including rebels and pirates.
The lawmaker pointed for example the municipality of Labangan as one of the areas which is exposed and in a weak position to ward off surprise attacks given the absence of any government forces guarding its vicinities.
Two resolutions were passed by the PPOC that day. One tackled on the council’s request addressed to the the 1st Infantry (Tabak) Division to establish an army detachment specifically in Barangay Combo in Labangan.
Barangay Combo, Labangan is said to be a “landing area” of unwanted visitors, pirates, robbers and lawless elements from the neighboring shores.
Mondarte said that the presence of the 1st Infantry there will keep these marauders at bay.
The PPOC’s meeting actually was an upshot of an offensive shown last week by unidentified persons who attacked an army detachment established along the Tukuran-Labangan highway intersection.
In the said midnight attack, the aggressors fired a rifle propelled grenade to the checkpoint, wounding a soldier, later identified as M/Sgt. Samuel Companion.
The quick reinforcement of the MP Company and the 53rd IB prevented more hostility.
Mondarte said the PPOC condemned the attack in the strongest terms, calling it an act of cowardice and terrorism.