Gov’t fast-tracking normalization program for MILF — Nograles

MANILA, Philippines — The government is fast-tracking the normalization program for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Under the program, MILF forces will be decommissioned in four phases. This year, around 12,000 combatants, which account for 30 percent of the total 40,000 MILF members, are set to be decommissioned.

READ: 12,000 MILF fighters to be decommissioned

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said in a statement Tuesday that 12,000 combatants and their families will receive assistance for housing, livelihood, skills training, and employment opportunities. They will also get scholarships, PhilHealth coverage, conditional cash transfers, and documentation such as birth certificates and postal IDs.

Nograles co-chairs the Inter-Cabinet Cluster Mechanism on Normalization (ICCMN) together with Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez, Jr.

Under the normalization track, another 35 percent will be decommissioned next year while the rest will be decommissioned in 2022 before the signing of the exit agreements.

“The President has directed all of us to focus on and step up normalization programs because he knows the success of these efforts is the key to establishing lasting peace in Mindanao,” the senior Palace official noted.

Last April, President Duterte issued an executive order to implement normalization, which is one of the tracks under the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), the final peace deal signed by the government and the MILF in 2014 after four decades of conflict.

Under the CAB, the normalization phase will follow the political track, which was accomplished with the passage of the Organic Law for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. It was signed by President Duterte last year. (Editor: Eden Estopace)

READ: Challenge after BOL ratification: MILF to decommission arms