THE Moro Islamic Liberation Front-Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (MILF-BIAF) is set to “decommission” 1,301 of its combatants and their weapons during the resumption of the decommissioning process on August 3, Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity Secretary Carlito G. Galvez, Jr. said last Wednesday,
Galvez, during the 2023 Post-State of the Nation Address (SONA) Discussions on Good Governance, Peace, and Security, said this will cover the third phase of the decommissioning process under the normalization provision of the government-MILF peace accord.He said the decommissioning of the more than 1,000 combatants will bring to 26,000 the number of forces that had undergone the process.
More than 24,000 combatants have already been decommissioned.
“Next year and the year after that, the 14,000 or 35 percent remaining combatants will be decommissioned,” Galvez said.
He said the Independent Decommissioning Body (IDB) is expected to complete the decommissioning process before the first election in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) in 2025.
The former combatants are provided up to P100,000 in livelihood aid while some undergo additional training and are given the chance to join the police force.
Decommissioning is part of the Annex on Normalization under the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), the peace agreement between the government of the Philippines (GPH) and the MILF signed in 2014.
