MAGUINDANAO — The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) showed its sincerity in adhering to an agreement it entered with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on child soldiers when the rebel group released on Saturday children who fought for or helped the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces and the Women Auxiliary Brigade of the MILF.
The children were released near the MILF's Camp Darapanan in a ceremony in which government officials, the MILF, and the UNICEF took part.
According to Lotta Sylwander, UNICEF's country representative, the release became possible when the MILF agreed to identify and separate the children who had associated themselves with the MILF-BIAF.
They have come up with a UN-MILF action plan on recruitment and the use of children.
The release is part of a series of ceremonies that will eventually disengage about 1,858 individuals associated with the military wing, may it be a child involved in actual firefighting or who served as a messenger or assigned to cook food for MILF rebels.
Sylwander said children are vulnerable to an environment where they experience conflict and, worse, become part of it.
The action plan was signed in 2009 between the UN, through its children's agency, and the MILF to put and end to the recruitment and use of children in war or in any way their welfare is put at risk.
Both the UNICEF and the MILF said it took a while to reap the fruits of the action plan because they had to discuss the issue with base commanders, parents and the children.
"This is taken a long time because it entails convincing not just the base commanders but also the community. They need to understand," Sylwander said.
Eduard Guerra, chairman of the UN-MILF Action Plan Panel, said the MILF was in a difficult situation following Islamic customs and traditions just to fit with the UN's mandate of not recruiting children younger than 18 years old to be part of the MILF's military wing.
"It didn't take off easily. There should be a correct approach," Guerra said.
Brothers Daud and Saad, not their real names, are among the children who received a "certificate of disengagement" in Saturday's ceremony.
They joined the MILF-BIAF 2 years ago.
The brothers were enticed to take up arms for the MILF, because their father acts as brigade commander of the MILF-BIAF stationed inside Camp Darapanan.
They were not pushed to enter the BIAF, one of the brothers said.
"Nag-stop ako kasi mas gusto ko mag-aral kasi para yun sa kinabukasan ko (I quit because I'd rather go to school for my future)," elder Daud said.
The government has thrown its support behind the UN-MILF action plan.
Jesus Dureza, the presidential adviser on the peace process,
was present during the release of the child soldiers. He said the government will immediately talk with the UNICEF and the MILF on their subsequent plans to know what sort of programs can be put together to help rehabilitate the children.
He also said that this engagement of children in the armed conflict will be totally eradicated or stopped once an ideal, enabling environment can be provided to them.
Meanwhile, Sylwander said the UNICEF plans to get the children involved in activities that will help them reintegrate in a normal society.
The MILF is bound to institute safeguards, such as strictly monitoring and screening its troops, to prevent children from associating with its military wing or picking up arms again.
Sammy Al-Mansor, chief of staff of the MILF-BIAF, has assured the government and the UNICEF that his group does not recruit children or teenagers, as doing so violates the MILF-BIAF's Code of Conduct.
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