106 more MILF fighters decommissioned
Mindanao Peace Process • 20:45 PM Wed Feb 19, 2020
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By:
John M. Unson
The Firearms turned in by decommissioned Moro guerillas. (Photo courtesy of Dhen Banudan)
COTABATO CITY --- More than a hundred more members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front got decommissioned Tuesday based on its peace deal with Malacañang.
The Independent Decommissioning Body and the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process jointly facilitated Tuesday’s event in a public gymnasium in nearby Sultan Kudarat town in Maguindanao.
The activity was capped off with the turnover by 106 MILF members of their firearms for subsequent safekeeping by the Turkish-led IDB.
Each of the decommissioned MILF members received P100,000 cash as initial support for their reintegration into the mainstream communities.
Their families are also to get healthcare, education, housing and livelihood support from the national government as part of a normalization process agreed by the government and the MILF.
Hundreds of MILF members were decommissioned in a symbolic event led by President Rodrigo Duterte in the same venue last year.
Peace talks between the government and the MILF started January 7, 1997 and culminated with the replacement in February 2019 of the 29-year Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao with a Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao based on agreements reached by both sides in over two decades of tedious negotiations.
The MILF’s revolutionary figurehead, Hadji Ahod Ebrahim, is now chief minister of the fledgling Bangsamoro region.
The MILF-led Bangsamoro regional government is focused on rebuilding communities ravaged by decades of secessionist strife and on empowering conflict-stricken Moro sectors via extensive political and socio-economic interventions.