MILF Implementing Panel Emphasizes Vital Need for Sustained Dissemination of Correct Information on the Peace Process

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• EDD K. USMAN | Twitter: @edd1819 | Instagram: @bluestar0910 | Facebook: SDN — SciTech & Digital News

EM MANOR HOTEL, Cotabato City (SDN) — Delivering information can make or break any established relationships, including peace agreements.

It is the reason those tasked with delivering information to a particular group, or to the public generally should be armed with enough details and nuances of their subject matter. Incorrect information can spell doom for one’s objective.

That’s a major anchor for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front Peace Implementing Panel (MILF PIP) for its conduct of activities aimed at levelling off in terms of the correct information for all those involved in the mechanisms of the Bangsamoro peace process.

Engineer Mohajirin T. Ali, director general of the Bangsamoro Planning and Development Authority (BPDA), made this clear in an interview Sunday, May 12, at the sidelines of the two-day forum in this hotel. BPDA is an agency of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

In an interview with SDN — SciTech & Digital News, he said the activity is about disseminating the correct information and sustaining it, especially for the people on the ground.

“This is the usual activity that the MILF PIP has been conducting for the last couple of months since last year. The activity aimed a levelling off all those involved in the peace process, especially the mechanisms,” Ali emphasized.

“So, nagiging magandang practice siya, kasi nagiging onboard and lahat, lalo na ang itong mga mechanisms natin. First of all, sila yon mga face ng peace process, especially as the MILF is concerned.” (So, this is a good practice because everyone is put on board, especially those in the peace process mechanism. First of all, they are the faces of the peace process as the MILF is concerned.)

Ali said that with the activity, the second since last year, those who on the ground are able to deliver correct information to the stakeholders as they are able to learn of their specific tasks and what they have to do.

“So, those are the things we are striving to sustain so the dissemination of information is solid to avoid confusion about the things the people may want to know about.”

He noted that if the frontliners of the peace process, those in the mechanisms of the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), lack enough knowledge, what happens most of the time is that only one party in the peace process is heard. “We can’t blame them, however,” Ali said. “With this activity, this will be fruitful and somehow we can bring correct information.”

Decommissioning of MILF combatants and weapons

Education Minister Mohagher M. Iqbal spoke at the two-day activity here as he re-emphasized the need for sharing correct information concerning old and new developments of the peace process.

The chair of the MILF PIP, Iqbal, who wears many hats in the peace process, said that “in our view, this is very important to our struggle which we should be able to carry.”

He added that every member must have “deep conscious of the process, for if (one’s knowledge) can’t be leveled up problems may develop.”

“Overall, the objective is that our understanding is equal. We are assuming that everyone has the knowledge, but there those who still do not have enough understanding,” the MILF chief negotiator said.

Iqbal also walked back the participants of the forum starting from the aborted Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) in 2008 during the time of the then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo until the administration of former President Rodrigo R. Duterte, considered the architect of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) and the BARMM.

Others present at the event included BARMM Social Work Minister Atty. Raissa Jajurie, Science Minister Engineer Aida Silongan, Minister of Parliament (MP) Atty. Mary Ann Arnado, and heads and members of the various peace mechanisms of the MILF.

In a related development, Aliuddin U. Haron, Legislative Committee secretary, Statutory Committee Support Service, reported at the forum the Normalization Track of the CAB has already resulted in the decommissioning of 26,132 combatants and 4,625 weapons.

He said Phase 1 of the decommissioning process that started on June 16, 2016, involved 145 former combatants and 75 higher powered and crew-service weapons.

Phase 2, he added, had 12,000 former combatants decommissioned and 2,100 weapons. Phase 3 decommissioned 14,000 former rebels and 2,450 weapons. He hastened to add that although Phase 3 is technically completed, there are still 13 ex-MILF rebels still to be decommissioned.

Phase 4, Haron pointed out, shall have the same number with Phase 3. (/)