General Dolorfino, as the new commander of WESMINCOM, was expected to inspect his units deployed in the Lanao Provinces, Zamboanga Peninsula including those in the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi. While he is familiar with the Lanao situation having earlier commanded a Marine Brigade then deployed here, he still needed to visit the area to project his command presence to the troops.
This morning, General Dolorfino did come to my brigade to personally explain his concept of command which is summarized in his vision for WESMINCOM: “a people-oriented and professional military command deeply committed to the promotion of peace, progress and development through multi-stakeholders dialogue, partnership and collaboration.” To ensure this is understood and carried out by the troops, he took great lengths to elaborate what he meant as “people-oriented” and “professional military” which he considers as the two pillars for soldiers to stand on; he stressed that peace and progress will be the ultimate purpose of all military efforts.
Hence, he says, there will be a paradigm shift in the conduct of Internal Security Operation (ISO) at WESMINCOM aspiring for a mix of 20 percent combat operations and 80 percent civil-military operations (CMO). This will involve pursuing six lines of activities that is now heavier on the latter:
• Military operations to promote peace & order
• CMO to facilitate good governance
• CMO to promote socio-economic reform
• CMO to promote cultural cohesiveness and harmony
• CMO to promote good environmental management
• CMO to promote good public information
The new WESMINCOM commander was happy to note that 104th Infantry Brigade has already been doing all these, if not weighing more on CMO—in conformity with his concept of command. Nonetheless, whatever mix it shall be, we will not err if we keep in mind the welfare of those—our people—we have sworn to serve.
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