ARMM leaders, Army, PNP vow support to decommissioning of MILF forces

From the Philippine News Agency (May 20): ARMM leaders, Army, PNP vow support to decommissioning of MILF forces

Major stakeholders in the proposed new political entity have expressed full support to the International Decommissioning Body (IDB) which will oversee the deactivation of Moro rebels following the signing of the Mindanao peace deal.

The Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro (CAB) was signed by the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on March 27 and among its provisions is to decommission rebels as part of the normalization process.

Chief Superintendent Noel Delos Reyes, police regional director of the five-province ARMM, and Major General Romeo Gapuz, 6th Infantry Division commander, were among the those who expressed their support to IDB.

The 6th ID’s rank-and-file personnel will support the programs and activities of the IDB, according to Col. Dickson Hermoso, spokesman of 6th ID, which is based in Maguindanao, one of the component provinces of ARMM.

Delos Reyes has already ordered all police directors in the region to study the modalities of the IDB’s operation and to help formulate measures on how the ARMM police can complement its decommissioning initiatives.

ARMM is home to most of the MILF guerillas who fought the government for several decades hoping to achieve the right to self determination.

Earlier, chief government negotiator Professor Miriam Coronel-Ferrer said the IDB’s creation was part of recent discussions between the government and MILF peace panels in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

“The IDB would be the one to supervise, oversee and basically implement the decommissioning process,” Ferrer said in a statement released by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP).

Explaining the details of the discussion, Ferrer said the MILF has agreed to submit a list of its weapons and combatants, to be verified by the IDB, which will implement the decommissioning process.

Ferrer also said the MILF combatants will undergo training according to the procedures set forth by the Armed Forces of the Philippines and definitely no “wholesale” integration.

ARMM Regional Gov. Mujiv Hataman said his administration welcomes the creation of IDB’s.

Hataman said all the elected town mayors in the region’s more than 100 municipalities are ready to extend support to the IDB.

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