Old Provincial Capitol, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao– Roel Aliasgal, a member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s (MILF) Southern Sulu Provincial Committee, patiently waited for this turn to be processed inside this sprawling government complex that was converted for several months into an assembly and processing area.
Aliasgal, a Tausug born and raised in the island province of Sulu, was the last of the 12,000 MILF combatants to be decommissioned under the second phase of the decommissioning process, which began last August 28, 2019 and ended this month.
The decommissioning of MILF forces is among the key provisions of the Annex on Normalization of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) forged between the government and MILF, which aims to help former combatants transform into peaceful and productive citizens.
For Aliasgal and his comrades who travelled for more than twenty hours by boat from the island-province of Sulu to reach Maguindanao, the decommissioning process is very personal.
For more than four decades, MILF fighters like him were engaged in armed battle against the government, for self-rule over the ancestral lands in Mindanao.
However, the peace agreement in 2014 and the subsequent passage and ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) has shifted the MILF’s struggle from an armed one into a peaceful, and development-driven revolution.
This development has given way to the transformation of communities once wracked by armed conflict and the implementation of more responsive policies under the leadership of the newly-established Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) interim government.
“Mamumuhunan po kami. Ang sabi ko nga sa tropa, kung ano man ang matatanggap naming sa decommissioning, ‘yun na rin ang magiging instrument tungo doon sa matagal na nating inaasahan na kapayaaan. Lahat tayo naniniwala na itong kapayapaan ay nagsisimula sa ating sarili,” the 50 year-old Aliasgal said.
(We will invest. I told my comrades, whatever we receive in this decommissioning, we will use as an instrument towards our long-awaited peace. We all believe that peace comes from within us.)
Each decommissioned combatant received a total of P100,000 in transitory cash assistance from the government. The P80,000 was provided under the Bangsamoro Transitory Family Support Package (BTFS) and the remaining P20,000 was sourced from the Livelihood Settlement Grant (LSG), a fund that was created in partnership between the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
“Sana magbalik na sa normal ang buhay at ang pag-iisip nating lahat na hindi na tayo babalik sa kung ano ang nangyari noon…para sa pamilya, dapat i-encourage ang mga anak na mag aral di lang sa western education kundi maging sa Islamic studies,” Aliasgal said.
(I hope that our lives and mindsets would be back to normal, that we wouldn’t go back to what happened before. As for our families, we have to encourage our children to study not only western education but Islamic studies as well.)
Under phase two of the decommissioning process, 5,361 combatants were decommissioned from the Darapanan cluster; 1,691 from Lanao del Sur cluster; 1,100 from Salman cluster; 986 from Lanao del Norte cluster; 954 from Rajamuda cluster; 848 from Old Maganoy cluster; 742 from Davao del Norte cluster; and 318 from Al-barka cluster.
Of the decommissioned combatants, 98.29% or 11,795 of them were males while 1.71% or 205 of them belonged to the Bangsamoro Islamic Womens’ Auxilliary Brigade (BIWAB). Senior and disabled members of the MILF-BIAF accounted for 4.63% of the total number.
At least 2,100 assorted weapons and more than 500 ammunitions were also turned over by the former combatants to the Independent Decommissioning Body.
With the successful conduct of the decommissioning phase, the GPH and MILF Implementing Panels are now looking forward to the implementation of the succeeding phases within the next two years.
The decommissioning process is being implemented in four phases. The 12,000 newly-decommissioned MILF combatants under the second phase comprise 30% of the total number of MILF members. Another 30% will be decommissioned under phase 3 within the year, while the rest will undergo the process until 2022 when the Exit Agreement between the government and the MILF is signed.
During the resumption of the second phase of decommissioning last February 2020, MILF Peace Implementing Panel Chair Mohagher Iqbal said the peace agreement between the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the MILF states: “[the] MILF shall undertake graduated decommissioning of each weapons and combatants parallel and commensurate to the implementation of the other agreement.”
Iqbal explained that phase three of the decommissioning process, which will be composed of 35% of the total 40,000 combatants to be decommissioned under the normalization track of the CAB, shall be triggered by operationalization of the Bangsamoro police force.
He added that for the fourth and final phase of decommissioning to take place, Iqbal said a “substantial compliance of both parties of all the provisions of the [peace] agreement” have to be complied with.
“Ang buhay namin sa MILF…almost 50 years of armed struggle, so pumupunta na tayo ngayon sa normal life…Ang kalagayan namin, mas maganda po from a combatant role to a productive civilian life. At may kapayapaan na po, may hustisya, meron ng socioeconomic intervention na manggagaling sa gobyerno, manggagaling sa international community. So In Shaa Allah, gaganda ang buhay nating lahat especially mga MILF combatants,” Iqbal said
(Our lives in the MILF…almost 50 years of armed struggle, so now we will be moving towards a normal life. We now have peace, justice, socioeconomic intervention from the government, from the international community. So In Shaa Allah, our lives will be better especially [the lives] of MILF combatants.)
For 2020, the government has earmarked a total of PhP2.4 Billion to implement the other aspects of normalization which include education, health, technical and livelihood training, livelihood programs and assistance, agriculture support, social interventions, and camps transformation.
Local, national, and international peace partners were all engaged by the government to ensure the effective implementation of the normalization track.
In 2019, the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process inked a memorandum of agreement with peace partners from the government and private sector to implement programs under the different normalization components: security, socioeconomic, confidence-building measures, and transitional justice and reconciliation.
“We would like to recognize the invaluable contribution of all our peace partners who have gone beyond the call of duty to uplift the lives of our Moro brothers and sisters. Through the various programs and projects they are implementing, they are helping create better and more economic opportunities for the Bangsamoro People,” said OPAPP Undersecretary David B. Diciano.
Based on in-depth assessment of needs, other forms of assistance programmed for decommissioned BIAF-MILF, their families and communities include health insurance grant, civil registration, integrated skills development training, study grant program, alternative learning system, social entrepreneurship, emergency employment, and community-based infrastructure.
Earlier this month, members of the international community expressed their strong commitment to the Bangsamoro Peace Process during a Senate committee hearing on the BOL’s implementation. Among those who attended the hearing were the European Union (EU), Embassy of Turkey, Embassy of Japan, and the British Embassy.
At the sidelines of the hearing, Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito G. Galvez, Jr. said he is very pleased with the successful implementation of the second phase of decommissioning whose effects are now starting to be felt by the MILF members, their families and communities.
Galvez said the Bangsamoro peace process remains on track following the marching order of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte to implement all signed peace agreements with the various Moro fronts.
“With the successful decommissioning of MILF combatants and their weapons, we are looking forward to starting the third phase within the year. The government and MILF leadership are optimistic that we can surmount the challenges we face along the way and that by 2022, we can already sign the exit agreement,” Galvez said.