President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the creation of an Inter-Cabinet Cluster Mechanism on Normalization to ensure the “timely, appropriate, and efficient delivery” of the decommissioning program under the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, documents released by the Palace showed Tuesday.
In his Executive Order No. 79, signed April 24, the President said the national government recognizes that “normalization is a process whereby communities can achieve their desired quality of life within a peaceful and deliberative society.”
The EO also paves the way for the decommissioning of Moro Islamic Liberation Front forces and arms.
With this, the Duterte administration emphasized the need to adopt a multi-faceted normalization program, covering the aspects of security, socioeconomic development, sustainable livelihood, political participation, confidence-building, and transitional justice and reconciliation.
The ICCMN shall be composed of representatives from the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process and the Office of the Cabinet Secretary as co-chairpersons.
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The members shall consist of representatives from the Commission on Higher Education, Technical Education, and Skills Development Authority, National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, National Security Council, and Departments of the Interior and Local Government; National Defense; Justice; Social Welfare and Development; Agriculture; Education; Health; Labor and Employment; Finance; Budget and Management; Trade and Industry; Information and Communications Technology; and National Economic and Development Authority.
The EO also mandates the Cabinet cluster to coordinate and mobilize relevant government agencies, provide policy advice, supervise and monitor all socioeconomic interventions, create a working group on vulnerable sectors, and submit periodic reports.
Meanwhile, the programs under the different components of the normalization program will be implemented for the combatant and non-combatant elements of the MILF, the families of the commissioned combatants, and other vulnerable individuals and sectors residing in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
“The programs shall cover six recognized MILF camps, particularly Camp Bilal in Lanao del Note and Lanao del Sur, Camp Omar ibn al-Khattab in Maguindanao, Camp Rajamuda in North Cotabato and Maguindanao, Camp Busrah Somiorang in Lanao del Sur, Camp Badre in Maguindanao, and Camp Abubakar as Siddique in Maguindanao, and other locations of decommissioned combatants,” the EO said.
Aside from the decommissioning of MILF forces and weapons, the EO also tasked the ICCMN to work for the program’s transition, disbandment of private armed groups, management of small arms and light weapons, and redeployment of AFP units from or within the BARMM.
Senator Panfilo Lacson said Tuesday that decommissioning of combatants will set the direction of the peace efforts simply because it will largely define good faith between the national government and the MILF leadership.
He said this would be just the first step since the decommissioning involves only a fraction of the entire MILF forces.
On the part of the government, he said it must make sure that the commitments under the BOL are delivered promptly and fully.
He said both the government and the BARMM should be on the lookout for the possible emergence of a breakaway force that could disrupt the peace process even at this early stage of implementation.
Senator Gregorio Honasan said that the core issues from the start are revenues and security.
Fundamentally, no part must be stronger, richer or bigger than the whole, he said.
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