MILF: Inter-agency partnerships sought to implement TJRC recommendations

Posted to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front Websitee (Mar 20): Inter-agency partnerships sought to implement TJRC recommendations



The Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) seeks partnerships with selected government agencies to initiate actions to implement recommendations of the Transitional Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TCRJ) geared to address legitimate grievances and correcting historical injustices that were committed against the Bangsamoro people. 

This developed after Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa, Jr. directed Sec. Teresita Q. Deles, PAPP, to endorse the TJRC Report to the relevant agencies for the agencies’ review and assessment, convene and coordinate with the agencies to work towards the adoption and implementation of the recommendations and identify and mobilize resources to support the programs that may be implemented.

The Normalization Annex of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) which the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed provides the creation of the TJRC.
TJRC is independent body mandated to conduct study and make recommendations with the view to promote healing and reconciliation of the different communities that have been affected by armed conflict in Mindanao.

In its report which was conveyed to public on March 15, the TJRC concluded there were legitimate grievances of the Bangsamoro people, land dispossession and human rights violations committed against them.

The body suggests 90 recommendations that can be implemented through mutual reinforcing efforts of the government and the MILF peace panels, by existing governmental and state institutions at national, regional and local levels.

TJRC said even civil society and non-government organizations in the filed of education, history, reparation, healing, justice, development, institutional reforms and reconciliation can take part in the implementation.

However, the TJRC said Recommendations cannot replace a durable peace agreement and its legal framework, the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law.

TJRC highly recommend the creation of National Transitional Justice and Reconciliation
Commission on the Bangsamoro (NTJRCB) that shall oversee and support the operations of its four Sub-Commissions, ensure the implementation of the ‘dealing with the past’ framework, and promote healing and reconciliation.

In her message during the TJRC Report Public Launch in Cotabato City, Sec. Teresita Q. Deles, PAPP, said she will create a working committee composed of representatives from the different relevant units of OPAPP to undertake the tasks set forth by the Executive Secretary.  

“We will seek at the earliest possible time to draw up Memoranda of Agreement to institutionalize the partnership along these different tasks with selected government agencies,” Deles said.

She mentioned those agencies as the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos, the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, the Department of Education, the National Historical Commission, the Claims Board for Human Rights Victims of Martial Law, and the ARMM Regional Government, particularly its regional human rights body and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

The presidential adviser said they will also work closely with the Peace and Human Rights Desks of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police, respectively.

“Certainly, it is our intent to maintain continuing conversation with the MILF with regards all these efforts. I cannot guarantee that we will agree with all the points raised in the report, but I can commit that we will study each point carefully,” Deles said.

She believes that the remaining period of more than three months left to do the work may be enough to identify strategic program thrusts and embed those through the appropriate department orders and funds allocation in the mainstream work of selected relevant agencies.

“We need to undertake the hard, long term efforts such as those embodied in the recommendations of the TJRC Report,” Deles underscored.

As the political commitment for the passage of the BBL in accordance with the roadmap laid out by the CAB is pursued, she said they fully accept the additional tasks that the TJRC Report calls them to.

Deles thanked the TJRC, headed by Ms. Mo Beeker, Special Envoy of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs and the “listening process” facilitators and participants.

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