“Normalization is not a buffet where parties can choose what they want and disregard others.”
— MILF Peace Implementing Panel
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By EDD K. USMAN | Twitter: @edd1819 | Instagram: @bluestar0910 | Facebook: SDN — Scitech and Digital News
COTABATO CITY (SDN) — A transformed life awaits a total of 1,301 combatants of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) as the decommissioning’s Phase 3 of the Mindanao peace process continues on August 03, 2023.
SDN — SciTech and Digital News learned about this on Monday, July 31, from the MILF Peace Implementing Panel (MPIP) chaired by Mohagher M. Iqbal, who wears many hats in the peace process with the Government of the Philippines (GPH).
The MPIP issued a statement containing a six-point declaration as the GPH and the MILF panels prepare for the Phase 3 of the decommissioning of 1,301 combatants and their firearms.
Recall that the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) that GPH and MILF signed covers two tracks, such as the Political Track and the Normalization Track.
The Normalization Track covers the decommissioning of combatants and their firearms to put them beyond use; meanwhile, the Political Track is inclusive of the Bangsamoro Organic Law’s (BOL) ratification which was approved in a plebiscite in January 2019, and the subsequent establishment of a new political entity (NPE), which is now the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
The MPIP statement emphasizes the MILF combatants and their weapons’ decommissioning “is the responsibility of the Independent Decommissioning Body (IDB)” with the GPH and MILF’s active participation.”
“Under the roadmap, the MILF combatants will undergo a graduated and gradual decommissioning in four phases. The decommissioning of combatants and their weapons signifies the transition of their communities to progressive societies,” the MILP panel points out.
On the other hand, the remaining 1,301 combatants’ “decommissioning” covered under Phase 3 on August 03, the MPIP says, “is merely the profiling of the combatants and possibly their receipt of the cash assistance from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).”
The MILF, underscored, meanwhile, that a closer look shows that “decommissioning is the whole process of transforming lives of combatants so that they become productive civilians.”
The MILF said it was looking forward “to other interventions that would make the MILF combatants’ transformation as well as for those who already went through the process since 2015.
Decommissioning is just one of Normalization Track’s components, which include disbandment of private armed groups, transitional justice, amnesty, the transformation of six acknowledged MILF camps into productive communities, and socio-economic programs, and others.
But for achieving “lasting peace and stability”, the MPIP pointed out that the two parties, GPH and the MILF, particularly the former, “must also fulfill these other components of Normalization”.
Explaining further, “Without implementing these different aspects, MILF combatants will not be able to move forward and rebuild their lives as their situation has not changed,” the MPIP stresses.
Close to 20,000 MILF combatants and over 2,000 weapons already decommissioned
However, as the MPIP acknowledged, achieving a successful decommissioning of the MILF combatants in the future “hinges and depends on the parallel and commensurate implementation of the other aspects of Normalization”, which is not a buffet table that parties can choose only those they want and disregard others.
“To dream of the complete decommissioning of MILF combatants and weapons while leaving the other aspects of Normalization unfulfilled and
unimplemented will not result in peace. Such premature decommissioning weakens the capacity of the MILF to deliver its commitments. Peace partners should not undermine but instead strengthen each other,” the MPIP emphasizes.
Ultimately, it pointed out, this all boils down to a responsibility of the GPH.
“In the end, the speed and progress of decommissioning in the future lie in the hands of the National Government and whether they can implement with the same enthusiasm and speed as they implement decommissioning the other
aspects of Normalization, i.e., transitional justice, amnesty, the transformation of six acknowledge MILF camps into productive communities, socio-economic development, and disbandment of private armed groups, among others,” the MPIP statement concludes.
In September 2022, the Department of National Defense (DND) said the decommissioning of MILF combatants and their weapons have already yielded 19,345 fighters, which translate to 48 percent of the 40,000 MILF combatants up for decommissioning. In the weapons aspect, 2,175 were decommissioned beyond use, which is 36 percent already. (Source: Politico.com.ph)
Iqbal is chief negotiator of the MILF Peace Panel, and since 2019 is a Member of Parliament of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), and minister of the Bangsamoro Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education (MBHTE). (/)