LIEUTENANT General Corleto Vinluan Jr., commander of the Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom), has ordered the joint task forces to sustain the gains and maintain focus on attaining the mission of the command.

Vinluan issued the order as Westmincom held a two-day Campaign Assessment Workshop through Video Teleconferencing Capability (VTC) from Wednesday, October 14, until Thursday, October 15.

Vinluan said the two-day activity is to evaluate the progress of the command's campaign against terrorism and lawlessness and to develop recommendations to address existing challenges.

"As I listened to the summary of what transpired in the two-day campaign assessment and seeing the accomplishments and the overall success of the campaign, I wish to congratulate all the Joint Task Forces for sustaining the gains that we have started," Vinluan said.

"The overall security condition has become more manageable, stable, and significantly improving; as we continuously endeavor to harmonize all our security operations with development and governance and engage all stakeholders to actively get involved in addressing the different threats confronting the region and most of their underlying causes," he added.

The workshop was attended, through VTC, by the commanders and triad officers of all the joint task forces.

The joint task forces under the Westmincom are the following: Joint Task Force (JTF) Zamboanga, JTF Basilan, JTF Sulu, JTF Tawi-Tawi, and JTF Zampelan (Zamboanga Peninsula and Lanao).

It was also attended by the command staff led by Colonel Elmer Suderio, chief of Unified Command Staff, and the representatives from the Naval Forces Western Mindanao and the Tactical Operations Wing-Western Mindanao. (SunStar Zamboanga)