COTABATO CITY (November 15, 2025) — Officials of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division and its new commander are certain of the surrender of more terrorists from two defunct terror groups, whose members who pledged allegiance to the government in batches in recent years have all been reintegrated into the local communities.
Officers from different units of 6th ID told reporters on Tuesday, November 11, after the installation then of Major Gen. Jose Vladimir Cagara as their division commander by the chief of the Philippine Army, Lt. Gen. Antonio Nafarrete, that they have been receiving lately more surrender feelers from the few remaining members of the Dawlah Islamiya and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.
Some of those who have signified intention to turn themselves in are experts in fabrication of home-made bombs, according to municipal and provincial officials present in Tuesday’s event at Camp Siongco in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte, which was jointly presided over by Nafarrete and the former commander of 6th ID, Major Gen. Donald Gumiran.
The headquarters of 6th ID is located at Camp Siongco in Barangay Awang in Datu Odin Sinsuat, just a few meters away from the Cotabato Airport.
Cagara replaced Gumiran, who was designated in late September as commander of the Western Mindanao Command, covering Regions 9 and 12 and all five provinces and three cities in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Brig. Gen. Ricky Bunayog, commander of the 602nd Infantry Brigade, and his counterpart in the 603rd Infantry Brigade, Brig. Gen. Michael Santos, separately said that officials of local government units in areas under their jurisdiction are helping secure the return to the fold of law of the few remaining Dawlah Islamiya and the BIFF members via backchannel dialogues.
Many of the terrorists planning to avail of 6th ID’s reconciliation program for violent religious extremists, or VREs, have relayed to the division their intention to go through the process via local officials and Moro leaders supporting police and military peacebuilding and rehabilitation activities in former Dawlah Islamiya and BIFF enclaves.
The two terror groups are tagged in all deadly bombings in Central Mindanao in the past 10 years and have a reputation for fomenting hatred for non-Muslims.
While at Camp Siongco on Tuesday, Nafarrete and Gumiran told reporters that Cagara shall oversee the return to mainstream society of Dawlah Islamiya and BIFF members who have renounced their membership with both groups.
Units of the 6th ID and LGUs in Central Mindanao have worked out the surrender, as a joint initiative, of 1,723 Dawlah Islamiya and BIFF members since 2021.
Regional officials who attended Tuesday’s change of command ceremony at Camp Siongco, among them Bangsamoro Chief Minister Abdulrauf Macacua, figurehead of their 80-seat parliament, and his two his constituent-governors, Tucao Mastura of Maguindanao del Norte and Ali Midtimbang of Maguindanao del Sur, assured to help Cagara push forward 6th ID’s reconciliation program for members of both groups.
Photo shows the entrance to Camp Siongco, the command center of 6th ID, which has extensive peacebuilding programs focused on the rehabilitation of former violent religious extremists from the two now virtually unfunctional terror groups — the Dawlah Islamiya and the BIFF.