The draft Bangsamoro Basic Law submitted by President Benigno Aquino III to Congress on Wednesday carried no provision on decommissioning of the armed component of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
Article Eleven of the 122-page document tackled peace and order and embodied the provisions in the normalization annex of the peace agreement between the MILF and the government, but was silent on the decommissioning process.
The 15 other articles of the Bangsamoro bill specified the territory, form of government and fiscal powers of the new political entity seen to replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, the chair of the government's negotiating panel, said the process of withdrawing the MILF’s firearms no longer needed legislation.
“Ang proposed law ay patungkol sa pagtatayo ng Bangsamoro. Ang decommissioning ay isinasagawa ng government. This doesn’t need a law to implement,” Ferrer said in a text message.
Secretary Teresita Deles, the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, said steps towards the decommissioning of the MILF’s firearms were already being taken even without the Bangsamoro Basic Law.
“Normalization process doesn’t have to be in the law. Except for the part on the setting up of police, it’s executive action that doesn’t need new legislation. Normalization bodies are already set up, and joint planning ongoing,” Deles said.
The normalization annex of the peace deal signed in January covered the process of decommissioning the armed wing of the MILF and outlined steps to disarm private armies in the proposed Bangsamoro area.
Under this annex, an Independent Decommissioning Body is tasked to oversee the gradual decommissioning of MILF forces and weapons. This body shall be composed of three foreign experts and four local experts.
Last May, Ferrer and MILF peace panel chairman Mohagher Iqbal said the two sides had already started creating the different bodies that will implement the normalization process for the proposed Bangsamoro political entity, including the decomissioning of the MILF.
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