MARAWI CITY (MindaNews / 04 May) — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) and the Office of the Peace, Reconciliation and Unity (Opapru) gathered on Saturday commanders from the Army and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to a meeting to ensure deployments in the “areas of concern” in the province of Lanao del Sur are coordinated.
Twenty out of 29 towns in Lanao del Sur and Marawi City have been declared by Comelec as “areas of concern.”
Colonel Joel Mamon, head of the government’s Coordination Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH) and the Ad-Hoc Joint Action Group (AHJAG), said Army commanders and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) met at the Army’s 103rd Infantry Brigade headquarters here, to discuss guidelines on how to prevent any confrontation or misencounters when government troops are deployed in the Comelec-declared “areas of concern.”
These “areas of concern” are the towns of Bacolod Kalawi, Balindong Watu, Bayang, Binidayan, Buadipuso Buntog, Butig, Lumbaca-Unayan, Maguing, Malabang, Marantao, Marogong, Masiu, Mulondo, Piagapo, Pualas, Saguiaran, Sultan Dumalundong. Tamparan, Tubaran, Tugaya, and the Islamic City of Marawi.
Commanders from the Army and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front look for their names on the to affix their signatures on the tarpaulin committing to follow the guidelines set by the Commission on Elections to ensure a peaceful and orderly elections on May 12, 2025. MindaNews photo by FROILAN GALLARDO
He said the guidelines are crucial in sustaining the peaceful outcome of the May 12 elections.
Mamon said in the operating guidelines, the MILF commanders agreed to an unhindered movement of election paraphernalia, ballot boxes, Comelec personnel, public school teachers and army or police escorts into polling places in communities with strong presence of the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces, the military arm of the MILF.
The MILF signed the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, the peace pact between government and the MILF, on March 27, 2014. Part of the implementation of the peace agreement is normalization, which includes the decommissioning of combatants and weapons, a process that has yet to be completed.
Mamon said water and land routes used by the BIAF should remain open to government troops, teachers and Comelec personnel carrying ballot boxes and election paraphernalia during and after the May 12 election.
“MILF forces are prohibited to display their firearms and consolidating their forces when the Army and policemen escort the COMELEC personnel and teachers in and out of the communities or bases,” Mamon said.
He said only the main MILF camps in Darapanan in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao and Bushra in Butig, Lanao del Sur are exempted from these guidelines.
Mamon said any violation of these guidelines shall be considered as a ceasefire violation.
Janati Mimbantas, Northeastern Mindanao Front commander of the MILF
in the Lanao provinces and a member of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority, agreed and signed on behalf of the MILF.
“We also aspire for an honest elections,” Mimbantas said, adding they fought and sacrificed in this struggle.
Mimbantas recommended the setting up of joint teams of unarmed MILF fighters and government troops for better coordination. (Froilan Gallardo / MindaNews)
