THE good news from our southern shores is that the comprehensive peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front is proceeding according to plan—and, apparently, working well.
Ample proof of this is the recent announcement by the MILF that more than half of its fighters have already decommissioned.
That’s according to Mohagher Iqbal, a former top leader of the rebel group and now a member of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority.
Iqbal disclosed recently that 26,145 MILF fighters have already been disbanded, leaving only about 14,000 active fighters.
The former MILF fighters are entitled to P950,000 worth of compensation, including P650,000 for housing, P100,000 cash assistance, and the rest for other assistance like PhilHealth and scholarships.
So far, all 26,145 decommissioned fighters have received the P100,000 cash aid. Meanwhile, only about 2,000 firearms have yet to be decommissioned.
The former MILF fighters are also eligible for amnesty, but no amnesty petition has been granted so far.
According to Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity (OPAPRU), they are targeting to decommission all MILF fighters before the first-ever parliamentary elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARRM) in 2025.
The decommissioning process is part of the comprehensive peace agreement that the MILF signed with the government in March 2014. This peace agreement paved the way for the creation of BARRM that nows stand as the embodiment of the goal of self-rule by Muslim Filipinos.
Mindanao has not known peace since armed conflict erupted in the early 1970s between government forces and Muslim rebels demanding separation from the national government for its neglect of Muslim Mindanao and pervasive poverty in the region.
The armed rebellion by the Moro National Liberation Front started in the 1970s and resulted in thousands killed on both sides until the Tripoli Agreement of 1977 ended hostilities.
A breakaway group of the MNLF calling themselves the Moro Islamic Liberation Front resumed armed struggle on a separatist agenda, again leading to much violence and bloodshed until the two sides negotiated a peace deal 34 years later.
BARMM’s predecessor, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, was described by then-President Benigno Aquino III as a “failed experiment” because it failed to solve the problem of poverty and improve the lives of Muslim Filipinos.
BARMM, however, represents a new beginning for Muslim Mindanao that inspires new hope for lasting peace and sustained socio-economic development for all Muslim Filipinos.
