DAVAO ORIENTAL — Some 49 members of the Mandaya Peacekeeping Force also called “Baganis”, are now certified firefighters after finishing the 5-day Fire Prevention, Law Enforcement, Territorial Defense Orientation, Environmental Protection, and Community Responder’s Course for Lay Rescuers in Barangay San Ignacio, Manay town.
The participants are volunteers from Brgy. San Ignacio, Brgy. Central and Brgy. Holy Cross, who proudly displayed their certificates during the graduation ceremony held last October 15.
The training had five (5) courses designed to develop and train them as peacekeepers in their communities and are expected to help strengthen and maintain peace and order and ensure safety in their respective villages.
The peacekeepers came from villages previously identified as rebel-infested and lairs of the communist terrorist group, CPP-NPA-NDF, described Ednar Dayanghirang, the Vice-Chairperson and Focal Person of the Provincial Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (PTF-ELCAC),
Dayanghirang commended the new graduates as they are now “instruments of peace and nation-building.” “
He told the graduates, “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 said the Baganis 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.-PR
