COTABATO CITY (MindaNews / 17 August) — The chair of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on Saturday issued a new directive, effective immediately, prohibiting its commanders and officials from participating “in any decommissioning or normalization activities” organized by the national government and the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity (OPAPRU) “without prior written approval or authorization” from him.
MILF chair Al Haj Murad Ebrahim issued MILF Memorandum Order No 037 on August 16.
The MILF and Philippine government signed a peace agreement — the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro – on March 27, 2014, paving the way for the creation of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) whose first Interim Chief Minister was Murad – from February 2019 to March 2025. The BARMM is now headed by Abdulraof Macacua, concurrently the Chief of Staff of the MILF’s Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF).
“Pursuant to the July 19, 2025 Resolution of the Central Committee which temporarily suspended the Implementation of the Fourth and Final Phase of the decommissioning process, it is important that all Front Commanders, Base Commanders, heads of line agencies of the organization and their subordinates strictly observe protocol and official channels in dealing with our National Government counterparts,” Ebrahim ordered.
This directive follows a Central Committee resolution issued on July 19, 2025 but released on July 26, which suspended the fourth and final phase of the decommissioning process for MILF combatants and weapons, until there is “substantial compliance by the (Philippine government) in the other tracks of normalization, including the provision of socio-economic package as agreed upon by the GPH and MILF Peace Implementing Panels to the 26,145 (decommissioned) combatants.”
A total of 40,000 MILF combatants and 7,200 MILF weapons are to be decommissioned as agreed upon by both parties. Of this number, 26,145 MILF combatants and 4,625 weapons have been decommissioned in Phases 1 to 3. The fourth phase would have involved 14,000 combatants and 2,575 weapons.
Murad’s directive states that any non-compliance will be considered a “serious breach of command discipline” and could lead to administrative and disciplinary action.
MILF Central Committee list to IDB
Even without Murad’s order, however, the peace agreement provides that MILF combatants can be decommissioned only when the MILF Central Committee which Murad continues to chair, submits its list of combatants it wants to be decommissioned, to the Independent Decommissioning Body (IDB), a body created by the peace agreement to oversee the verification, validation and decommissioning of MILF combatants and weapons.
Chaired by Turkey, the IDB keeps the MILF list confidential and verifies the names through profiling, biometrics and validation to pave the way for the decommissioning and the giving of socio-economic benefits.
Responding to the MILF’s July 26 statement on the deferment of the decommissioning, David Diciano, head of OPAPRU’s Office for Bangsamoro Transformation issued a statement on July 31, denying the MILF’s claim that the government has failed to deliver on its socioeconomic commitments to combatants who have already been decommissioned.
According to Diciano, the government has invested an estimated P4 billion since 2019 alone for socioeconomic support. He noted that major interventions have been ongoing since 2015, with 26,145 decommissioned combatants and six MILF camps already receiving benefits through a “whole-of-nation approach.” These include P100,000 in transitional cash assistance per combatant, PhilHealth enrollment, and skills training programs.
Diciano also pointed out that the government had allocated P488 million for decommissioning in 2023, supposedly for Phase 4 of the decommissioning. But the funds had to be returned to the national treasury because the MILF did not submit the list of combatants for Phase 4 decommissioning, the first step towards decommissioning.
“With the decision of the MILF Central Committee to repeatedly delay and eventually defer the final phase of the decommissioning process since 2022, these combatants continue to face uncertainty. This is despite the goodwill of the National Government, which has allocated substantial funds in the amount of Php 488 million for the phase 4 decommissioning since 2023, only to be returned to the national treasury as required by government financial regulations in 2024,” Diciano said.
Diciano added that the amount “is on top of the 2024 budget of more than Php 300 million cash assistance to the initial 2,700 MILF combatants, which was supposed to be used for the final phase of the decommissioning process this year.”
“The MILF’s deferment will likely, and once again, force the government to return the funds to the national treasury by the end of this year,” he added, as he described the suspension of decommissioning as “unfair and unjust” for those who are “willing to undergo the decommissioning process, depriving them of their opportunity and right to be transformed into productive, peaceful citizens as envisioned in the CAB.”
“The decision of the few should not deny the aspirations of the many,” Diciano stressed, as he urged the MILF to use official channels like the Peace Implementing Panels to address its concerns.
The MILF has been leading the 80-member Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) since the start of the transition period in February 2019. The transition period was supposed to end on June 30, 2022 but the first BARMM Parliamentary Elections was reset to May 12, 2025 and again reset to October 13, 2025.
The transition period ends on October 30, 2025, with the assumption of the elected Members of Parliament who will then elect the Chief Minister.
The BARMM is the lone autonomous region in the country and the lone region whose system of governance is parliamentary, under a highly centralized Presidential system nationwide.
Investigations
The MILF’s unilateral suspension of the decommissioning process has led to investigations in the two houses of Congress.
At the Senate, Senator Imee Marcos filed a resolution on August 4 calling for a legislative inquiry into the matter that concerns “public safety, national security and trust in the Bangsamoro peace process.”
In the House of Representatives, Kamanggagawa party-list Represntative Elijah San Fernando filed a resolution on August 11 directing the appropriate committees to conduct an inquiry, in aid of legislation, “on the ongoing normalization process component” of the CAB “to identify gaps that impede the progress of the peace process and determine effectual mechanisms towards sustainable peace and reconciliation. (Ferdinandh B. Cabrera and Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews)
