Lorenzana: BARMM won’t have own armed force

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana clarified over the weekend that President Rodrigo Duterte did not actually want the Bangsamoro Autonomous region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) to have its own armed force, but only security personnel under the military’s control.

In a speech last week, Mr. Duterte said that he might allow Barmm to have its own armed force to crush terrorists in the region. This was amid the ongoing decommissioning of an initial 30 percent of Moro Islamic Liberation Front fighters.

“When you are already evolved into something which is really a regional [functional autonomous government] and if you have your own armed forces or police, I will allow it,” Mr. Duterte said. Lorenzana, however, pointed out that the Bangsamoro Organic Law does not allow the Barmm to have its own armed force.

“I believe what the President wants is for the Barmm [to] have its own armed forces supervised and controlled by the Armed Forces of the Philippines,” he explained.

The defense secretary added, “Our law (Constitution) only allows the existence of one armed force.”

In an interview aired Sunday over radio station dzBB, Army chief Lt. Gen. Gilbert Gapay said he met on Friday with Barmm chief minister Ahod “Al Haj Murad” Ebrahim to express the Army’s continuing support to the region’s joint peace and security team.

Decommissioning

“We just reaffirmed the commitment of the Philippine Army for its support for the success of the normalization process because right now we are in the process of decommissioning [MILF] combatants and their firearms,” he said.

According to Gapay, the Army is also ensuring the smooth reintegration into mainstream society of former MILF fighters through various interventions of government agencies in terms of providing livelihood and other benefits.

“Right now we are working on 30 percent initial [decommissioning], so this is by phase, and we are training the joint peace and security teams (JPST), ” the Army commanding general said.

He pointed out that each JPST is made up of 30 personnel: 15 MILF, 8 policemen, and 7 soldiers and “facilitates the decommissioning and transition of former MILF camps into productive and economic hubs.”

Gapay added that the JPST was primarily tasked to protect the civilian communities during the BARMM transition to a fully established regional government by 2022.