01 July 2017•Update: 02 July 2017
By Hader Glang
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on Friday signed an agreement with the government to strengthen President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs in areas under the insurgents’ influence in the southern Philippines.
The pact between the government and the group, which signed a peace deal with the government in 2014, comes one year after the Duterte administration launched its anti-drug crackdown, which saw the seizure of illegal drugs valued in the billions of Philippine pesos (1 billion pesos is worth some $19.8 million).
Signing the cooperation protocol were officials of the government's Drug Enforcement Agency and Coordinating Committee on Cessation of Hostilities, as well as the MILF's Islamic Armed Forces and Ad Hoc Joint Group.
Officials hailed the agreement as a good move to help Duterte’s campaign to rid the country of illegal drugs.
Philippines Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) head Isidro Lapeña said the protocol will be applied to anti-drug operations and other related activities in MILF communities.
The protocol also lays out procedures and defines the roles of both the government and MILF in law enforcement operations to file drug cases and arrest drug suspects.
Coordination and identifying suspects
Abdul Dataya, who chairs the MILF’s Ad Hoc Joint Group, said under the deal the MILF will participate in operations against illegal drugs in their own communities.
Dataya added, however, that their role will be limited to coordinating with government forces and furnishing lists of suspects.
They will leave to regular government forces direct involvement in anti-drug operations in communities under their influence, he explained.
"But the MILF will assist in trying to prevent possible mistaken encounters. We have a group who will coordinate with the armed forces," he said.
Dataya said the protocol would be applicable in MILF areas in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and MILF camps in Central Mindanao, Western Mindanao, and some parts of Davao Oriental and Compostela Valley, in the Davao region.
In the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, officials say illegal drugs are rampant in 366 of Maguindanao’s 509 barangays (villages), or about 72 percent, while Lanao del Sur, which includes Marawi, has 313 of its 1,059 villages, or 29 percent, affected.
In October 2015, the MILF declared the use, sale and proliferation of shabu or methamphetamines as haram (forbidden) in Islam and banned its sale and use in the Bangsamoro and neighboring areas.
Since Duterte took office on June 30, 2016, a total of 182.52 billion Philippine pesos ($3.6 billion) worth of illegal drugs had been seized, versus 14.8 billion ($294 million) seized during the last year of the past administration.The Philippines Drug Enforcement Agency says the present administration has scored big in its all-out war against hard drugs by bringing down the number of users and affected areas in the country.
