12,000 MILF combatants to be decommissioned within the year, Galvez says

March 6, 2019

Some 12,000 combatants of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are set to be decommissioned within the year, Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez Jr. said on Wednesday.

In an interview with reporters at his office in Pasig City, Galvez said the 12,000 combatants are equivalent to about 30 percent of the 40,000 estimated members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF), the MILF combatant group.

"The decommissioning (of the MILF forces) will be done in three major stages in three years from 2019 to 2022," he said, citing that the first "30 percent of the 40,000 (MILF fighters, equivalent to) more or less 12,000" would happen this year.

In June 2015 after a peace deal was reached between the Aquino administration and the MILF, the latter conducted a ceremonial decommissioning of 145 BIAF members and turning over of 55 high-powered and 20 crew-served weapons.

The deactivation of the 30 percent of the MILF fighters would be completed by the end of this year following the ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law and the installation of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority last month.

The decommissioning of the 35 percent would take place after the full reconstitution of the BARMM next year and the remaining percent, before the election in 2022, Galvez said.

The former military general said it would take months before the completion of the decommissioning of the first 30 percent because of the "very tedious verification of combatants and their communities."

He said that the foreign-led Independent Decommissioning Body, as well as Verification and Monitoring Team, would have to visit the MILF camps, such as the six major camps in Bilal, Bushra, Omar, Bader, Darapanan and Abu Bakar and some satellite camps in Basilan.

Based on the initial assessment, he said some 3,000 BIAF members could qualify as members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police.

He also said that the decommissioning of the MILF combatants would be conducted with the disarming of the over 100 private armed groups (PAGs) in Mindanao.

"So, aside from the decommissioning, there's also the activation of the National Task Force Against PAGs...so we will implement fully martial law and also the firearms use and control," he said, noting that the task force would be headed by the Department of Interior and Local Government.

President Rodrigo Duterte is expected to sign an executive order regarding the normalization annex of the peace deal with the MILF, including the decommissioning of the BIAF.

Once an EO is issued, this, along with the implementing rules and regulations, will be published, Galvez said.

The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao has been replaced by the BARMM, which is being governed now by the BTA headed by interim chief minister Al Haj Murad Ebrahim, chairman of the MILF. Celerina Monte/DMS