BASILAN Rep. Mujiv Hataman yesterday warned that fighting will continue between government forces and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) as long as the agreement to decommission the separatist rebels is violated.
Hataman, former governor of the defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), told a House briefing on the state of the peace process and peace and order situation in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) that only 62 percent of the target 40,000 MILF combatants have been decommissioned eight years since the MILF signed a peace deal with the government under the last Aquino administration.
The normalization track on peace agreement includes the decommissioning of 228,000 MILF combatants which Hataman said is clearly being violated, causing skirmishes between the government and MILF forces.
“This is a weakness of (the) normalization (process). This is a wake-up call to all of us. Let us be honest with each other. Let’s not fool each other because we’ll just be making a fool of ourselves,” the Basilan lawmaker told the committee on peace, reconciliation and unity.
Hataman said last week’s three-day encounter in Barangay Ulitan, Ungkaya Pukan in Basilan that left four MILF members and three soldiers dead would have been prevented had the decommissioning part of the normalization phase been strictly followed.
“If the decommissioning was undertaken correctly, I’m sure the encounter would not have happened)” he told Undersecretary David Disciano of the office of the presidential adviser on peace, reconciliation and unity (OPAPRU).
Even before the extension of the term of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), Hataman said the list of the names of combatants should have been submitted by the MILF “at that time, when the bargaining power of the government was higher.”
“But up to now, we don’t have a list. That is a violation of the signed agreement, right?”
Hataman asked, to which Disciano replied, “For that particular agreement, it is being violated, sir.”
Sections 1 and 12 of the Bangsamoro Organic Law’s Article XVI provide that the transition period shall end upon the dissolution of the BTA, which is immediately after the BARMM election and once a Chief Minister under the First Parliament is chosen.
Vice chairman William Hovland of the Independent Decommissioning Body (IDB) told the panel that 24,844 out of the 40,000 MILF combatants have so far been decommissioned, with 4,625 firearms turned over to the government.
Hovland noted that 40,000 combatants are the final target for decommissioning and 7,000 for firearms.
Hataman said both parties should work harder to ensure the implementation of the decommissioning phase to end armed conflict because “if the process goes on like this, this decommissioning will never end.”
