IT took a budget hearing in the House of Representatives for the public to know that the government office in charge of decommissioning former rebels of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) does not know how many of these rebels have received the benefits due them, despite the millions of pesos released by the government to them.
Leyte Rep. Richard Gomez has slammed the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation, and Unity (OPAPRU) over the lack of transparency and accountability in the decommissioning of MILF combatants.
Gomez, a former movie actor and city mayor, participated actively in the House briefing on the state of the peace process and peace and order situation in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
He pointed out that the OPAPRU should have been more thorough in ensuring that the government is not placed at a disadvantage in the implementation of the normalization track of the peace agreement between the government and the MILF.
‘Gomez is correct in calling for transparency and competence in our officials handling this very sensitive national security issue.’
“There should be accountability in the disbursement of government funds. The government cannot just allocate and release funds without being fully informed of who are the recipients of government support, without knowing who had availed of the decommissioning program. It is our duty as lawmakers and public leaders to scrutinize how public funds are spent and if such expenditures are advantageous to the government,” the congressman said.
The OPAPRU, during the briefing, admitted that it does not have a copy of the list of decommissioned combatants. The list was prepared and vetted by the Independent Decommissioning Body (IDB) that was created by the government and the MILF to oversee the process of decommissioning of MILF forces and their weapons. According to the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, the IDB is an integral part of the normalizing structure.
The IDB told lawmakers that 24,844 out of the 40,000 targeted MILF combatants have so far been decommissioned, with 4,625 firearms turned over to the government. But the detailed list of these beneficiaries was not unavailable.
Gomez is correct in calling for transparency and competence in our officials handling this very sensitive national security issue.
