COTABATO CITY — Officials of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and business groups are glad that Basilan had totally been cleared from the presence of the Abu Sayyaf terror group.
Basilan, which has 11 towns and two cities, Lamitan and Isabela, was declared Abu Sayyaf-free during a symbolic multi-sector rite on Monday, June 9, that the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity Carlito Galvez, Jr. and Special Assistant to the President Antonio Ernesto Lagdameo, Jr., both attended.
Also present in the event, held at the provincial capitol in Sta. Clara in Lamitan City, were Muslim and Christian religious leaders and representatives from business blocs in the province.
Mohammad Omar Pasigan, chairman of the Bangsamoro Regional Board of Investments, told reporters on Tuesday, June 10, that the feat will certainly hasten their efforts to entice investors from other regions and from abroad to venture into viable, capital-intensive businesses in Basilan.
“The province has been rising fast, even before that ceremony, as a new investment hub in the Bangsamoro region. This positive development will make Basilan shine even more as an investment destination,” Pasigan, whose office is the conduit of the Bangsamoro government to local and foreign investors, said.
Gov. Hadjiman Salliman told reporters on Tuesday that it was the joint peace and security efforts of their provincial government, the military’s Western Mindanao Command, the Army’s 101st Infantry Brigade led by Brig. Gen. Alvin Luzon, the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region and local executives in Basilan that vartually liberated the province from the Abu Sayyaf terror group.
Merchants in Lamitan City and members of the Basilan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, led by businessman Alex Abujen Jr., were quoted in radio reports as saying that they are thankful to Salliman, the Army’s 101st Infantry Brigade, the PRO-BAR, the Police Regional Office-9 based in nearby Zamboanga City, their congressional representative, Mujiv Hataman, the Moro National Liberation Front, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and their 13 mayors for having secured the surrender of 523 Abu Sayyaf members in the province from 2016 to 2022,
Up to 23 members in Basilan of the MNLF and the MILF, which have separate peace compacts with the national government, perished in clashes in the past six years with Abu Sayyaf members they drove away from their bastions that are recognized as “peace zones” by the police and military.
The entrepreneur-lawyer Ronald Hallid Torres, chairman of the Bangsamoro Business Council that has members in the five provinces and three cities in BARMM, said on Tuesday that they are contemplating on formulating, along with experts in the trade and tourism and agriculture ministries in the regional government, comprehensive investment plans for Basilan that capitalists from outside can possibly engage in.
“We are certain that Basilan’s being Abu Sayyaf-free now will be a strong magnet that will bring them in,” Torres said. (JFU, June 10, 2025, Cotabato City)
