Military vows to work for peace in Sulu

New Western Mindanao Command (Wesmincom) chief Maj. Gen. Roy Galido vowed to continue the various peace and development projects in Sulu and assured government leaders of the military’s steadfast resolve to eliminate the remaining threats in the province.

Galido, former commander of the 6th Infantry Division (6ID) in Sulu, paid a courtesy visit to Gov. Sakur Tan at his office in Patikul town on Monday, January 23.

“The two talked about the good relationship between the military and the local government officials of Sulu. Governor Tan assured the new commander of his continued support of the Western Mindanao Command’s endeavors, particularly in sustaining peace in the province,” said Army Lt. Col. Abdurasad Sirajan, Wesmincom spokesman.

“Major General Galido, likewise, gave assurance of the military’s steadfast resolve to eliminate all the remaining threats in Sulu.”

Galido was accompanied by Maj. Gen. Ignatius Patrimonio, commander of the 11ID and Joint Task Force Sulu; and Brig. Gen. Antonio Bautista, Deputy Division commander; and Brig. Gen. Benjamin Batara Jr., commander of the 1103rd Infantry Brigade.

Galido formally assumed the top Wesmincom post on Friday, January 20. He replaced Maj. Gen. Arturo Rojas.

While in Sulu, Galido also met with soldiers and emphasized to them the importance of discipline and work-life balance.

“Maintaining a high level of morale is essential in the accomplishment of our mission, hence, we must ensure that we are always inspired to do our job well,” Galido said to the troops.

“You must be reliable, responsive and relevant as part of nation-building.”

Galido also reminded the soldiers to maintain a high level of professionalism and discipline.

“Reliability will be anchored on our ability to prepare and anticipate security implications of any event or situation either natural or man-made. Responsiveness will be the key output of our reliability, and this is where constant planning and simulations of scenarios with security implications must be done, with this our response will always be positive,” Galido said.

“Relevance is what I must emphasize and most importantly be understood if our stakeholders do not appreciate the way we perform our missions, we are irrelevant, thus, we can be considered a wasted investment of the government and people, to avoid this, we must constantly communicate and coordinate our plans and much better if we could integrate with the plans of our stakeholders to build a better nation. This for me is (unity),” he added.