ARMY'S 88th Infantry Battalion and 524th Engineering Construction Battalion (524th ECB) have facilitated the construction of an Indigenous Peoples’ (IPs) school building, and the opening and improvement of a farm-to-market (FMR) road in Barangay Magsaysay, Quezon town, Bukidnon province.

“The construction aimed at helping indigenous peoples (IP) children hurdle the daily woes is going to school on foot for three hours,” said Army’s 4th Infantry Division public affairs chief Major Rodulfo Cordero.

 the 88th Infantry “Maringal” Battalion (88IB) of the Philippine Army together with Quezon local government unit (LGU) and 524th Engineering Construction Battalion, build an IP school in Purok 8, Magsaysay, Quezon, Bukidnon.

Cordero said that together with the local government unit of Quezon town, troops and engineers built the two vital infrastructures to give comfort to the highland people in the said town.

The four-kilometer road rehabilitation and the construction of one unit of two-classrooms for the IP School started on April 6, according to Cordero. 

The Engineering Battalion according to Cordero, also worked on the rehabilitation of the four-kilometer farm-to-market road in barangay Magsaysay, which is in response to the IP community’s needs based on the validation and assessment by the Community Support Program (CSP) team of 88IB.

The said two infrastructure projects were funded by Quezon LGU and the Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS) being implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). The Philippine Army will soon turn over this two-classroom school building to the Department of Education.

88IB commander Lt. Col. Franklin Fabic said that the Engineering Battalion started the construction after the community denounced their support to the New People’s Army (NPA).

He said this task also led other government agencies to converge and do their share in achieving peace and development in identified Conflict-Affected Areas (ConAAs) and Geographically Isolated and Disadvantaged Areas (GIDAS).

He added that the Army’s Community Support Program (CSP) is helping the local government in the conduct of rapid ‘needs assessment’ for projects that will alleviate the living condition of residents and identify the needs of the populace, thus, bringing development in the area.

The CSP team’s validation report showed that the absence of school and farm-to-market roads in the area was used by CPP-NPA as propaganda in recruiting IPs to join the terrorist movement and in radicalizing the community.   

In 2019, the 88IB dealt with the influx of NPA rebels from the said community who surrendered and availed of the government’s Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program (E-CLIP).

These former rebels (FRs) then provided vital information on the whereabouts of other communist-terrorists in the area that resulted in the series of the government troops’ successful encounters, incapacitation of the terrorist leaders, seizure of NPA hideouts, and capture of numerous firearms and war materials.

“Dako kaayo ko ug pasalamat kay daghan nabag-o sa akong kinabuhi paghuman namo ug surrender. Natagaan ko’g assistance ug gitagaan pa gyod ko ug trabaho. Pasalamat pud ko kay gitagaan pa mi’g dalan ug eskwelahan,” a former rebel and a newly graduated CAFGU Active Auxilliary a.k.a Toto said in his dialect.

Alias Toto also said their kids will no longer have to walk for hours from home to school because of the newly built two-classroom building.

“Mapasalamaton ang lokal nga pangagamhanan sa lungsod sa Quezon tungod sa pag-atiman ug pag-ayo sa dalan sa Purok 8, barangay Magsaysay. Usa kini ka bililhong gasa alang sa pagsiguro sa kahapsay ug kalinaw sa lungsod,” said in a statement by Quezon mayor Pablo Lorenzo III

“Padayon nga nakig-alayon ang lokal nga kagamhanan sa Quezon para sa maayong kaugmaon sa katawhan,” said Lorenzo.

Fabic also added that the projects and programs are proof of the government’s commitment to winning the peace and attaining development in far-flung communities. Let us protect these projects for a bright future of our younger generation." (Ben Balce with reports from 88IB, & PIA Bukidnon)