A total of 49 Mandaya Peacekeeping Force members, also known as “Bagani,” completed the recently held 5-day Fire Prevention, Law Enforcement, Territorial Defense Orientation, Environmental Protection, and Community Responder’s Course for Lay Rescuers in Barangay San Ignacio, Manay. The participants, who were comprised of volunteers from Brgy. San Ignacio, Brgy. Central and Brgy. Holy Cross, proudly accepted their certificates of completion during the graduation ceremony held on October 15.
The training consist of five (5) courses designed to equip them as peace-keepers of their communities in maintaining and strengthening peace, order, and safety in their barangay, which was used to be infested with the communist terrorist group, CPP-NPA-NDF.
Mr. Ednar Dayanghirang, Vice-Chairman and Focal Person of the Provincial Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (PTF-ELCAC), commended the new graduates on being full-fledged “instruments of peace and nation-building.”
“As instruments of peace, you have to bear in mind your responsibilities over the security and peace of your ancestral domain. You were equipped with all the things you need to know to protect your ancestral domain, and to never allow any entry that might cause harm and disturbance of order in your community,” he said.
Aside from disaster preparedness and territorial defense, the Baganis also learned about Indigenous Peoples Rights Act, which outlines their rights in safeguarding their ancestral domain.
Col. Edgar Delos Reyes, 701st Deputy Chief Commander, exhorted the Baganis to play an active role as vanguards of their ancestral land, especially in protecting it from the Communist-Terrorist Group New People’s Army, which has seeded nothing but dread and strife in the hearts of the people.
“By all means, this is your domain. Only you have the right to claim it, live in it, and develop it,” he added, emphasizing the Indigenous Peoples’ community’s critical responsibility in ensuring that the NPA does not exploit their people. Meanwhile, disaster management professionals provided the Baganis with advice on disaster preparedness to assist them make their community more catastrophe-resistant. The responder’s course and basic first aid was included in the course.
Meanwhile, disaster management professionals provided the Baganis with advice on disaster preparedness to assist them make their community more catastrophe-resistant. The responder’s course and basic first aid are included in the course.
The five-day training is part of the localized implementation of the Executive Order 70 of President Rodrigo Duterte or Whole-of-Nation Approach to End Local Communist Armed Conflict.
As a wrap up, a total of 295 Baganis that comprised six (6) Clusters underwent the same training in the municipality of Manay. | By Shaye Dacles
