By Hader Glang
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines
The chief of the Philippine armed forces’ Peace Process Office has expressed his belief that the country’s one-time largest Muslim rebel group remains a “worthy and faithful peace partner” of the government.
Brigadier General Buenaventura Pascual said in a statement Sunday that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has been “a consistent partner in the current administration’s quest to restore peace in Mindanao [island].”
“While there may be a few alleged abuses of some of their ground commanders, in all, their leadership is able to keep everyone in line,” he stressed.
Last year, the government and the MILF signed a peace deal aimed at bringing an end to 17 years of negotiations and a decades-old armed conflict in the south, while granting Muslims greater political autonomy. The 45-year conflict that has killed around 120,000 people.
Pascual underlined Sunday that “the ceasefire agreement between the government and the MILF has held” – with the exception of a fatal clash that left 44 police commandos dead in Maguindanao province earlier this year.
On Jan. 25, around 400 police commandos descended on Mamasapano township in search of two of Southeast Asia’s top terror suspects, only to run into members of the MILF and its splinter group, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters. In addition to the police commandos, 17 MILF members and five civilians were also killed.
“After the Mamasapano breakdown, the ceasefire was restored in just a matter of hours,” Pascual said. “I think that speaks volume on the desire of both parties to pursue the course of peace.”
Expressing his belief that the armed forces and the national police were in support of peace, he stressed that officers – despite being at the frontlines of armed conflicts – “are also normal, Filipino people with families to go home to. I think no one from the security sector, even from the MILF, wants war anymore.”
Referring to the “admirable” decommissioning process the MILF has undertaken, he said the willingness to give up the group’s arms served as “concrete proof” of the group’s commitment to the peace deal.
“For some, the weapons are just that – weapons. But to them, those arms represent their decades-long struggle,” he underlined.
In a ceremony in June attended by President Benigno Aquino III, the MILF turned over 75 assault rifles and 145 rebels left the group’s armed wing to return to civilian life.
Gradual decommissioning among the 10,000 estimated members of MILF’s armed wing is part of the Annex on Normalization of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, which was signed by the MILF and the government in early 2014.
Under the deal, 30 percent of combatants and weapons will be decommissioned after the passage of a law on an autonomous southern region, 35 percent after a plebiscite and the appointment of a transition authority, and 35 percent upon the Bangsamoro government’s establishment.
