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- EDD K. USMAN | Twitter: @edd1819 | Instagram: @bluestar0910 | Facebook: SDN — SciTech and Digital News
COTABATO CITY (SDN) — Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) members the Government of the Philippines (GPH) has welcomed to the fold of the law now stand at 26,145 after an addition to the ranks of 1,301 former combatants.
Phase 3 of the Normalization Track’s decommissioning process under the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) resumed on August 3, 2023, in Crossing Simuay, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao del Norte. The process defangs MILF armed members and their weapons to integrate them to mainstream society, make them law-abiding and productive citizens. Their weapons put beyond use.
The decommissioning’s third iteration went on not without challenges, though. Among the challenges include a new administration under President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr., the police-military dawn raid on June 18, that killed seven “legitimate members” of the MILF in Barangay Madidis, Datu Paglas, Maguindanao del Sur..
But though the road to peace is paved with an array of seemingly insurmountable obstacles, the journey must continue, for a return to war is a nightmare no one would like to sleep through.
MILF Chairman Al-Hajj Murad Ebrahim, Chief Minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), cited the MILF and Bangsamoro government’s “steadfast commitment” in pursuing sustainable peace in the region.
In saying “the region”, it’s the Bangsamoro territory under a parliamentary form of government, which is still under the National Government and established in 2018 by the BOL to implement the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB). The region is comprised of the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi, the cities of Cotabato, Lamitan and Marawi, as well as the 63 barangays or villages dubbed the Special Geographic Area (SGA) that voted “Yes” in a plebiscite in February 2019 to be under the BARMM jurisdiction.
OPAPRU’s Galvez allays apprehensions on peace accord’s implementation
According to the Philippine Atlas BARMM has 4,404,288 people. It has 116 municipalities: Basilan, 11 municipalities; Lanao del Sur, 39; undivided Maguindanao, 36; Sulu, 19; and Tawi-Tawi, 11. Its component cities are Cotabato (the regional center and capital) in Maguindanao; Lamitan in Basilan; and Marawi in Lanao del Sur.
“We understand the importance of this step (decommissioning) towards our goal of achieving lasting peace in Southern Philippines. After all, the MILF only aspires for equal opportunities and access for growth and development for the Bangsamoro people and its homeland,” said Ebrahim at the peace-related event.
Also at the event, MILF Peace Implementing Panel Mohagher M. Iqbal recalled in his speech the doubts raised by members of the group concerning peace talks with GPH.
“I can still recall some of our brothers in saying we should not pursue this because they will not listen to us, but the majority of the leadership of the MILF supports the idea of entering into peace negotiation, because we all know war is very costly. It will cost us millions; livelihoods; it will cost our lives and the future of our children. We cannot afford to let our children live in hunger, poverty and lack of education,” Iqbal, a member of Parliament of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) and minister of education of BARMM.
And it happened that despite the misgivings, after 17 years of negotiations the two parties were able to come up with the CAB.
“And so, here we are now…. The government after decades of peace negotiations, have given us the opportunity to lead the BARMM government and the MILF to take the captain seat to better our people. But… we are still in the implementation part of the peace negotiation, and lots of things are needed to be done.”
Apprehensions on the implementation of the CAB, particularly the Normalization Track’s components were allayed by Secretary Carlito G. Galvez, Jr., head of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity (OPAPRU).
“The implementation of all signed peace agreements is on top of the Marcos administration’s five-point peace, reconciliations, and unity agenda,” the presidential adviser assured at the decommissioning event.
‘Bleeding heart” because of Datu Paglas incident
Galvez went on to say the National Government through OPAPRU, as well as other concern line agencies, “is carrying out initiatives that aim to transform former MILF combatants and their families into peaceful and productive individuals and their areas into resilient and progressive community.”
Iqbal, chief negotiator of the MILF peace panel, said he came to the decommissioning event burdened “with a bleeding heart”.
“This is due to the fact that on June 18, 2023, we have lost (seven) legitimate members of the MILF at Barangay Madidis, Datu Paglas, Maguindanao del Sur, tagging them members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), and all in the guise of legitimate law enforcement operation. This incident had made us decide to put a halt to the scheduled decommissioning of the remaining 1,301 MILF combatants in the third phase.”
Iqbal pointed out deferring the third phase served as “a much-needed break to pave the way for healing process not only for the deceased’s love ones but also for the entire organization of the MILF.”
The MILF chief negotiator noted the President’s giving orders to investigate the Datu Paglas incident. “We, in the MIL, see that there are efforts to get to the truth of what happened and that measures are being put into place to make sure that there will be no repeat of what has happened.”
But Iqbal lamented that over month after the killing of the seven MILF members “no investigation by an independent body had ever gone to the area and conduct an investigation.”
To prevent the Datu Paglas incident from again happening, the MILF and some BTA Parliament legislators — two of them MPs Mary Ann M. Arnado and Baileng S. Mantawil — called for the return of the third-party International Monitoring Team (IMT).
It can be recalled the 60-man strong IMT launched in October 2014 headed by Malaysia, the Third-Party Facilitator of the GPH-MILF peace negotiations, is a mechanism that monitored the implementation of the ceasefire agreement of the two parties.
A neutral body, the IMT’s tasks included monitoring the security, humanitarian, rehabilitation and development, socio-economic assistance, and civilian protection of the ceasefire. The IMT exited the GPH-MILF peace process in 2022.
Whether the call for its return comes through, one can only wait and hope. (/)