By Noel Punzalan and Edwin Fernandez/Philippine News Agency
KIDAPAWAN CITY – The Army’s 602nd Infantry Brigade (602nd IBde), the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) and Government Peace Implementing Panel jointly conducted Tuesday an information drive inside the former Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s Camp Rajah Muda in Pikit, North Cotabato.
Just like other MILF camps, Rajah Muda is under the government’s “Camp Transformation and Normalization” program that seeks to transform the former rebel strongholds into peaceful and developed communities.
Leading the gathering in Rajah Muda were OPAPP Undersecretary Gloria Jumamil-Mercado, retired Brig. Gen. Dickson Hermoso, a member of the government peace implementing panel, and 602nd IBde commander Brig. Gen. Alfredo del Rosario Jr.
The assembly sought to provide former MILF fighters the basic details on the implementation of socio-economic programs, confidence-building and amnesty, decommissioning of MILF combatants and creation of Joint Peace and Security Teams (JPST) to secure their communities until 2022.
Under the government’s socioeconomic program, MILF members and their families will undergo processing to receive social protection (including health insurance), livelihood and educational assistance, and other development packages as part of the program.
“We are currently at the implementation (stage) on what has been agreed during the negotiation part of this peace process,” Jumamil-Mercado said in a statement Tuesday.
“We had finished the negotiations part and our challenge now is the timely implementation of the agreement set forth,” she added.
Hermoso, also minister of Transportation in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), said the decommissioning process of about 40,000 MILF fighters will be done in three batches.
Under the agreement, Hermoso said, 12,000 combatants will be decommissioned this year, 14,000 by 2020, and the remaining 14,000 by 2021.
He also said that 200 JPSTs would be organized with each team composed of seven soldiers, eight police officers, and 15 MILF members.
JPST members will be trained starting July 27 inside the Army’s Camp Lucero in Carmen, North Cotabato.
“Now, we are with implementing panel after completing all the negotiations. We have no more discussions about the BOL but rather is the time to implement what has been agreed,” said MILF field commander Jack Abas, who is also a member of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority.
The BOL refers to the Bangsamoro Organic Law that established the BARMM in recognition of the impartiality and legitimacy of the cause of the Bangsamoro people and their aspiration to chart their political future through a democratic process.
“We aspire for peace, and that peace is for all of us. This activity is to introduce the peace agreement for everyone to understand. This peace is for our people,” Abas added.
Rosario vowed the military will continue to implement the guidance of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte as reiterated during his recent State of the Nation Address for them to fully support the peace process and ensure peace and order in the communities.
“We are now hand in hand in this peace process far from the 90’s back then when we battle against each other,” said Rosario, who described the implementation of the peace process with the MILF as “historic”.
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