MikeLigalig.com

By Rey Anthony Chiu
PIA - Bohol

  WELCOME KAIBIGAN.

  The newly installed brigade commander of Bohol’s army unit is approaching peace in Bohol via another roadmap called Kaunlaran Ay Isulong Bayan Ibig Gumawa nga Aksyon Ngayon or simply KAIBIGAN.

  Kaibigan implements community development that jibes with the government programs and puts the military in active roles as they immerse and integrate their peace and internal security efforts in a community, sumps up Colonel Alex Albano.

  Albano, who was deputy commander for the 801st Brigade in Samar was instrumental in implementing the successful Kaibigan there, said they have been into helping communities build infrastructure and put up key development projects.

  But Albano would be filling in the leadership vacuum left by Col. Raoul Reyes who was lately engaged in brisk community development efforts with local officials or Team Bohol.

  Guesting the weekly Kapihan sa PIA and aired live over DyTR, Col. Albano of the army’s 802nd Brigade based in Carmen Bohol said Kaibigan should have no problems with Bohol especially with the cooperation of multi-sectors here.

  Col. Albano along with Capitol’s Romeo Teruel were the resource persons for the Kapihan segment on “Working for Peace in Bohol,” Thursday.

  Teruel, who sits as the point person for the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process in Bohol, said what is rare in the “Bohol experience” is that the peace campaign is not only relegated to the police and the military but is proudly led by the civil government.

  “This way, even with the change in unit commanders assigned in Bohol, the [peace] program sustains because it is the local governments who initiate it,” Teruel added.

  But with the way the brigade commander explained his roadmap, many believe that [kaibigan] would complement the initiatives already in place here. 

  Local peace workers have said former communist infiltrated barangays now cleared have been emboldened to resist the threat of another occupation and they want action right now.

  This as President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has been urging provinces struggling with insurgency problems to follow the Bohol template for peace.

  The president bared this after learning that Bohol has successfully reduced the number of rebels in Bohol in the last decade, a fact she also associated with the Bohol experience.

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