LIEUTENANT General Cirilito Sobejana, Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) chief, has proposed a new reform program to counter violent extremism.

Sobejana said the new reform program, dubbed as Broad Reform against Violent Extremism (Brave), adopts the strategic framework of the Program against Violent Extremism (Pave) for Peace, which depicts the interplay of good governance, law enforcement, and community participation.

The Pave for Peace is a holistic approach program that seeks to end violent extremism and bring about peace in the region.

Then Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) governor Mujiv Hataman, led the launching of the Pave for Peace on April 17, 2019 at the headquarters of the Army’s 4th Special Forces Battalion in Isabela City, Basilan.

Sobejana said the Brave focuses on three objectives: eliminating the drivers of violent extremism; comprehensive mainstreaming of former rebels; and, sustaining peace and development in the country and in the province, as a whole.

Sobejana said Brave is “an expanded version of the Pave, which it seeks to supplant” as the return, reform, and reintegrate phases of the latter is incorporated in the mainstreaming or empowering phase of the proposed new program.

Sobejana recently met with elected political leaders of the Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi (BaSulTa) areas and discussed about the new program.

Aside from Hataman, those who attended the meeting were Basilan Governor Hadjiman Hataman-Saliman, Sulu Governor Abdusakur Tan, and Tawi-Tawi Governor Yshmael Sali.

They were joined during the meeting by the commanders of Westmincom’s Joint Task Forces and other government officials. (SunStar Zamboanga)