Rules out for amnesty for former rebels

FILE PHOTO: This undated file photo shows members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in an undisclosed location. On Thursday, March 14, 2024, National Amnesty Commission (NAC) official Jamar Kulayan said ormer rebels who wish to apply for government amnesty may download the form online beginning this week. Jeoffrey Maitem/Inquirer Mindanao

COTABATO CITY—Former rebels can now begin seeking amnesty from the government after the National Amnesty Commission (NAC) released the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) to guide the process.

According to a NAC advisory, individuals who are seeking amnesty must file their applications with any Local Amnesty Board (LAB) where they will have to undergo initial eligibility assessments.

The LAB will then forward its recommendations to the NAC, which will further review the applications and provide its recommendations to the President for final approval.

In cases where applicants who are facing arrest warrants want to personally submit their applications to the LAB, they can request from the board in advance a provisional safe conduct pass, the NAC said.

Those detained will receive assistance from supervisory officers within their detention centers to facilitate their applications, it further said.

For applicants who are living abroad, they may apply for amnesty through the Philippine consulate in their current country of residence, the NAC added.

“With the issuance of the IRR, former rebels who have turned away from armed struggle and laid down their arms will be able to complete their normalization and transition to mainstream society as peaceful, productive and law-abiding citizens,” said Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez Jr.

Under the IRR, amnesty “obliterates the offense with which a person is charged such that the person released by amnesty stands before the law precisely as though he had committed no offense.”

The instrument “extinguishes any and all criminal liability for the acts subject of the amnesty grant, and restores all civil and political rights suspended or lost by virtue of criminal conviction.”

The IRR implements Proclamation Nos. 403, 404, 405 and 406 that were issued by President Marcos last year granting amnesty to former members of the Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Manggagawa ng Pilipinas/Revolutionary Proletarian Army/Alex Boncayao Brigade (RPMP-RPA-ABB), Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) and their front organizations, Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), respectively.

Mr. Marcos had vowed to facilitate the reintegration of former rebels into mainstream society.

Bangsamoro polls

Bangsamoro parliament Deputy Speaker Omar Yasser Sema, a second generation MNLF member, hopes the amnesty grants can be processed soon.“The timeliness of release [of the IRR] will have to be determined when it benefits the rebel leaders who intend to join the democratic process in 2025. We still have to see whether or not applications will be granted or denied before the mandatory deadlines for filing of candidacies for the parliamentary elections,” Sema told the Inquirer.

Sema noted that in the upcoming elections for the Bangsamoro parliament in 2025, which would be its first, most of the candidates to be fielded by the MILF and MNLF through their respective political parties “would be leaders of the revolutionary organizations” and yet many leaders of the MNLF, for one, were “still outside of the political spectrum” due to pending arrest warrants for alleged crimes committed in furtherance of rebellion.

It is therefore important “to have them cleared of cases that might hamper them from launching into candidacies in 2025,” he pointed out.

The first amnesty applicant in the Bangsamoro region is an MNLF member who has a pending case for illegal possession of firearms and ammunition. His daughter represented him in the filing for an amnesty application before the LAB here.

According to the NAC, there is a two-year window for amnesty applications, reckoned from the effective dates of the proclamations: March 4, 2024, for former members of the RPMP-RPA-ABB, MILF and MNLF; and March 13, 2024, for former members of the CPP-NPA-NDF and their front organizations. —WITH REPORTS FROM EDWIN FERNANDEZ, RYAN ROSAURO AND KATHLEEN DE VILLA