Decomissioning of arms, part of Bangsamoro process

Credit to Author: Tempo Desk| Date: Tue, 10 Sep 2019 17:30:29 +0000

SOME 1,060 combatants of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) underwent decommissioning with some 920 weapons in a ceremony held at the Old Capitol in Barangay Timuay, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao, last Saturday, September 7, attended by President Duterte.

The ceremony involved less than a tenth of the total 12,000-strong MILF. And the 920 firearms they surrendered were a small part of the hundreds of thousands of weapons they have wielded in the decades-long fighting and rebellion in Mindanao. There had been an initial turnover of a handful of firearms in 2015.

But more significant than the small number of decommissioned combatants and weapons in last Saturday’s ceremony was the spirit of hope that it embodied, the hope that at long last, Mindanao will now begin to have peace, especially in the region of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

MILF Chairman Ebrahim Murad, who now heads the Bangsamoro Transition Government, said the ceremony last Saturday “symbolized” that his group is “already a partner of the government in the peace and order campaign.” It will now move to disband the private armed groups, such as the Abu Sayyaf, who have long operated in the Mindanao.

In his speech last Saturday, President Duterte assured the former MILF combatants that the government will support them with economic programs to help them “reintegrate into society and productive civilian lives.”

This economic program will help but the core of the Bangsamoro program will be self-government by the Moro people. The national government will try to interfere as least as possible, the President said, assuring them that it will be up to them how they will use their resources. There will be “the least intervention o pang-istorbo galing sa itaas, sa national government,” he said.

The decommissioning process will be continuing in the coming months and years. The g
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