COTABATO CITY (October 25, 2025) — Officials highlighted the 38th founding anniversary of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division on Thursday, October 24, with the display of 1,421 assorted combat weapons, some turned in by owners voluntarily, the others seized in anti-terror operations in Central Mindanao in the past 24 months.
Lt. Gen. Antonio Nafarrete, commander of the Philippine Army, and the chief of the Western Mindanao Command, Major Gen. Donald Gumiran, who is overseeing the 6th ID in concurrent capacity, together presented the cache to local officials and reporters on Thursday as one of the highlights of the division’s 38th anniversary feast.
The 6th ID has units in the provinces of Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, South Cotabato and Sarangani and in the cities of Cotabato, Tacurong, Koronadal and General Santos.
“We are thankful to the sectors that helped us collect these firearms via community peace initiatives. Some of these were confiscated during tactical engagements, law-enforcement style, in far-flung areas,” Gumiran told reporters and guests while at Camp Siongco in Barangay Awang in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte, where 6th ID’s headquarters is located.
Many of the M16, M14, M1 Garand, M1 and M2 Carbine rifles, .30 and .50 caliber Machineguns, M60 machineguns, pistols of various calibers, B40 anti-tank and 40 millimeter grenade launchers that the 6th ID displayed at Camp Siongco then were turned over to its units by members of the now weakened Dawlah Islamiya and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters who have returned to the fold of law in recent months.
The erstwhile Dawlah Islamiya and BIFF terrorists who have pledged allegiance to the government have all been reintegrated into mainstream society through the joint humanitarian programs of the 6th ID, the local government units in Central Mindanao, the Bangsamoro regional government and the offices of the social welfare and labor and employment departments in Region 12.
Officials of 6th ID and Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity Carlito Galvez, Jr. are implementing in Central Mindanao the Small Arms and Light Weapons Management Program, a disarmament campaign complementing Malacañang’s peace process in Mindanao’s predominantly-Moro areas.
Nafarrete, Gumiran, Galvez and Bangsamoro Chief Minister Abdulrauf Macacua also awarded on Thursday, as part of the 6th ID anniversary activity, with special citations for exemplary accomplishments certain members of the Joint Peace and Security Team (JPST), which is helping local government units maintain law and order in areas where there are state-recognized enclaves of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
The JPST is composed of representatives from the Philippine National Police, members of the Army and other branches of the Armed Forces and former guerillas of the MILF, which has two compacts with the national government, the 2012 Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro and, subsequently, the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro.
Both peace agreements paved the way for the replacement in 2019 of the then 27-year Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao with a more politically and administratively empowered Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, whose regional government is being managed jointly by representatives from the MILF and the Moro National Liberation Front.
The MNLF has a separate truce with Malacanang, forged by both sides on September 2, 1996 in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Since its inception four years ago, the JPST, operating in the Bangsamoro Region and in the Administrative Regions 9, 10 and 12, local executives and peace advocacy groups supporting the government-MILF peace overture have jointly settled more than 50 deadly Moro clan wars and secured, via dialogues, the surrender of more than 50 individuals wanted for high-profile cases pending in different courts.
“This peacekeeping team show the oneness, in its true form, of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Philippine National Police and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in addressing security challenges and resolving peace and security problems in areas covered by the Mindanao peace process,” Galvez told reporters after Thursday’s awarding rite at the 6th ID’s gymnasium inside Camp Siongco.
He said OPAPRU is thankful to Macacua, the highest official in the Bangsamoro regional government, who is also chief of the MILF’s Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces, and members of their 80-seat parliament for cooperating in regional peacebuilding activities that are parallel with Malacañang Mindanao’s peace initiatives.