MILF to keep firearms even after Bangsamoro law passage

MANILA, Philippines - The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) will continue to keep its firearms even after the passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL).

An editorial posted on the MILF website luwaran.com said the decommissioning of the firearms would be done in four phases.

The first phase is what the MILF described as “goodwill” symbolic decommissioning of 75 firearms by yearend.

The second phase, MILF said, would involve the decommissioning of 30 percent of its weapons upon the passage of the BBL in Congress and upon its ratification in a plebiscite.

The BBL will implement the final peace agreement signed by the government and the MILF last March. The measure has been certified urgent by President Aquino and is expected to be discussed by lawmakers when they resume sessions this month.

The MILF said another 35 percent of the firearms would be decommissioned upon the establishment of the Bangsamoro Police.

The remaining 30 percent of the MILF weapons would be decommissioned two months before the signing of the Exit Agreement provided that the peace panels, third party monitoring team and facilitator certify that all commitments have been completed. 

Under the normalization annex of the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro, the MILF will undertake a graduated program for decommissioning of its forces so that they are put beyond use.

The decommissioning shall include activities that would ensure a smooth transition of the MILF forces towards a productive life.

Critics believe MILF forces should be required to surrender their firearms once the Bangsamoro region that will replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao is formed. They pointed out that it is hard to talk peace to an armed group.

The MILF said decommissioning is “simply no surrender of firearms nor of their destruction.”

“They are not given or surrendered to the government. It is not disarming the MILF per se, as some uninformed media people would like to say,” the group said.

“Most likely, the models in Northern Ireland and Nepal will be followed whereby firearms turned over are put in warehouses under the care and protection of third party decommissioning body composed of international and domestic eminent persons,” it added.

The MILF said decommissioning is “a very emotional and sensitive issue.”

“But because of its (MILF) sincerity and determination to solve the Bangsamoro Question in Mindanao, it has to undertake an ultimate sacrifice in exchange for peace and the settlement of the centuries-old conflict in Mindanao,” the group said.

“The MILF is staking itself to the scrutiny of time and history and the vicious attacks of critics to prove that this is the right track to solve this question of problem.”