Senators question ‘discrepancy’ in MILF decommissioning process

FIRE POWER Moro Islamic Liberation Front fighters brandish their high-powered weapons at Camp Darapanan in Sultan Kudarat town of the then undivided Maguindanao province in this undated photo, taken prior to start of the decommissioning of MILF members and their firearms in 2019. BONG S. SARMIENTO

Senators on Tuesday questioned the supposed “discrepancy” in the number of firearms that former Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) combatants had turned in as part of the peace deal that the secessionist rebels had entered into with the government.

Presiding over a hearing of the Senate national defense committee, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada directed Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez Jr. to submit a report on the status of the decommissioning process of the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF), the MILF’s armed wing.

This after Sen. Imee Marcos noted that only 12,000 of some 40,000 BIAF fighters had been deactivated since the Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro was signed by the MILF and the government in 2014, which eventually led to the creation of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) in 2019.

It was after the setting up of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority, the interim governing body of the BARMM composed mostly of former MILF leaders, that the decommissioning of the BIAF began.

But Marcos said she noticed that only a total of 4,625 firearms were surrendered by 26,132 former BIAF fighters, who got P100,000 each in cash assistance in exchange for laying down their arms.

“There is a need to investigate the delays (in the decommissioning process) and the veracity of the decommissioned forces,” Marcos said.

‘Significant’ difference

“(Regarding) the surrenderees, are they actually the combatants that we are after? Are they in fact surrendering genuine service weapons?” she asked.

Marcos also noted that “some of those who surrendered looked too old to be combatants.”

Sen. Raffy Tulfo said the difference in the number of surrendered firearms and deactivated MILF rebels showed that there were irregularities in the decommissioning process being implemented by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity.

Without citing any evidence, he said the program was tainted with corruption and that Galvez’s subordinates should be held liable.

“The discrepancy is (very significant). You have to investigate. There’s corruption here,” Tulfo said.

READ: ‘We’re not corrupt’: Galvez feuds with Tulfo at Senate hearing

The senator’s allegation did not sit well with Galvez, who assured the senators that he would present documents refuting Tulfo’s accusations.

In a testy exchange, he told Tulfo: “Definitely, I take offense that you’re already telling us that there’s corruption.”

“Don’t tell us that we are corrupt,” Galvez shot back at Tulfo. INQ