The decommissioning process for combatants of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is divided into four phases and not three stages as wrongly stated in a news article that appeared in benarnews.org. And while Phase 3 was already completed last August, the fourth and final phase is yet to start.
The news article, published August 4 but which MindaNews saw only this month, is about the apprehensions raised by MILF Chair and BARMM Chief Minister Ahod Balawag Ebrahim, also known as Murad Ebrahim, over efforts by militant groups to recruit MILF members to their ranks, endangering the process of normalization in war-torn portions of the southern Philippines.
Paragraph three of the article reads:
“We are facing a very challenging situation because there are still groups out there that encourage our members to join them,” Murad told reporters Thursday during a ceremony here as he led 1,301 former MILF combatants in the third and final phase [emphasis supplied] of a process to decommission them as fighters and have them turn over their weapons.
Murad was apparently alluding to the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), a group that broke away from the MILF over disagreements in the conduct then of the peace negotiation. It continues to fight against the Philippine government. The group’s presence is felt in two Maguindanao provinces in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
In September 2011, the MILF Central Committee approved a resolution expelling BIFF founder Amiril Umra Kato and his men from the group.
Kato told MindaNews in an interview on April 16, 2011, that he set up the BIFF around March 2010, three months after he tendered his resignation as commander of the 105th Base Command of the MILF’s Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF).
Paragraph seven of the same news item on benarnews.org also wrongly said that the decommissioning process started in 2019, and was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The implementation of the decommissioning process of the MILF forces is guided by the roadmap of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), specifically in the Annex on Normalization, which is agreed by the GPH (Government of the Philippines) and the MILF, Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez Jr. said.
The CAB was signed by the Philippine government and the MILF in 2014 after 17 years of peace negotiations.
Under the roadmap, the MILF shall undergo a graduated and gradual decommissioning in four (4) phases by percentage: ceremonial in Phase 1, 30% in Phase 2, 35% in Phase 3, and the remaining MILF forces in Phase 4.
Phase 1 of the process took place on June 16, 2015 with the ceremonial turnover of 55 high-powered and 20 crew-served weapons, and the decommissioning of 145 MILF fighters.
In Phase 2, 30% or 12,000 MILF combatants have been decommissioned, including at least 2,100 assorted weapons and over 500 ammunition.
Phase 3 was completed last August, involving 14,000 or 35% of the MILF combatants.
Phase 4 or the remaining and final stage of decommissioning shall take place after the evaluation of the peace panels with the participation of the Third Party Monitoring Team and Facilitator, played by Malaysia, that all the commitments of the parties have been completed.
As with all our other reports, MindaNews welcomes leads or suggestions from the public to potential fact-check stories.
MindaNews is a verified signatory to the Code of Principles of the International Fact-Checking Network. (H. Marcos C. Mordeno / MindaNews)
