The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has blamed the national government for purported lapses in implementing the peace agreement which has led to the stalled decommissioning of MILF combatants.
MILF Vice-Chairman Mohagher Iqbal said there has been a backlog in the compliance of the parties to the peace process.
The gridlock in the peace process is being traced to the “stalled absorption” of former combatants (or members of their families) into the Philippine National Police (PNP), he said.
In response, MILF chairman Al Hadj Murad Ebrahim issued a chairman’s memorandum last August 16 directing the MILF armed revolutionary forces to decline all government invitations for them to participate in the fourth and final phase of the process.
The Memorandum Order No. 037 became effective on that date and follows the temporary suspension ordered by the Central Committee on July 19, 2025.
As this developed, lawyer Omar Yasser Crisostomo Sema, a member of the Bangsamoro Parliament representing the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), urged the MILF leadership and the Philippine government “to return to the peace table.”
Sema said “there has already been a delay in the implementation of the Normalization Track of the Peace Process.”
He noted that more than 5,000 MILF former combatants or members of their families have passed the PNP eligibility set by the National Police Commission (Napolcom), but only about 300 of them, he said, were admitted to the PNP training because many have reportedly failed the neuro tests.
“In six years, 300 lang ang nakapasa (only some 300 have passed),” Sema said, adding that the neuro test requirement, as a rule, could also be relaxed like the educational attainment qualification under the Bangsamoro Organic Law (RA 11054).
RA 11065 reduces to college level the educational qualification for former guerrilla combatants for as long as they can complete in five years a college degree program after they have finished the physical training for entry into the PNP.
Sema said the process should continue to accommodate more former combatants into the reintegration process, “because many of them are getting older already and they suffer from a feeling of isolation.”
“The peace table has not yet been abandoned; magbalik sa pag uusap; magbalik sa table,” Sema said.
Meanwhile, the Philippine government has already delivered the peace package to the first batch of decommissioned MILF guerrillas, including payments for firearms turned over by some 5,000 former MILF combatants, said the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, Reconciliation and Unity (OPPAPRU).
Decommissioning involves turnover of firearms to an Independent Decommissioning Body (IDB), which would be “rendered beyond use,” as described in the annexes, accords to the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) signed in Malacanang in 2014.
Along with the decommissioning procedures, documentation for erstwhile Moro combatants includes an application (via OPPAPRU) for certificates of live birth (CLB) and issuances of CLBs by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) for the legalization process.
This will enable the National Amnesty Commission to process them to be absolved by the state of rebellion under the Revised Penal Code.
According to the OPPAPRU, the normalization procedure has now shifted to the National Amnesty Commission for the legal process of absolving former combatants from penalties of rebellion so that the NAC can recommend them for total amnesty to the Office of the President.
