MILF TESDA TRAINING. Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez Jr. (center right), and Technical Education Skills Development Authority (TESDA) Director-General Sec. Isidro Lapeña (center left), led other representatives Friday (Aug. 6) in signing a memorandum of agreement (inset) that would hone the technical skills of former MILF combatants under a TESDA socio-economic package. (Photo courtesy of Noel Punzalan/PNA-Cotabato)
SHARIFF KABUNSUAN COMPLEX, Cotabato City - The Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) inked a Memorandum of Agreement (OPAPP), will transform former MILF combatants to peaceful and productive civilians under a technical skills education program, here on Friday.
Present during the signing ceremony were Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity Carlito Galvez Jr., Technical Education Skills Development Authority (TESDA) Director-General Isidro Lapeña, and OPAPP Assistant Secretary for Normalization David Diciano.
The TESDA is targeting initial 7,500 MILF members to enroll this year to various TESDA courses ranging from agriculture, baking, carpentry, food processing, welding, machinery, agri-crop production, and mechanics, among others.
At present, the MILF is running the affairs of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), a product of more than two decades of peace overture by the former rebel group with the government.
“On Sept. 7, the decommissioning process of 1,060 combatants of the MILF with their 920 weapons and about 20 heavy weapons including a number of rocket-propelled grenades will begin," said BARMM Chief Minister Ahod “Murad” Ebrahim in his statement before a press briefing that followed the MOA signing activity.
“This is just part of the more than 2,100 weapons and 12,000 combatants to be decommissioned in the (Sept. 7) phase of decommissioning,” he said.
Ebrahim noted that the decommissioning demonstrate their sincere and full commitment to the peace agreement to achieve the goal of development for the Bangsamoro.
“Let me reiterate that we are not surrendering. Decommissioning is not tantamount to surrendering,” clarified Ebrahim, adding that their firearms will be handed over to an Independent Decommissioning Body (IDB) comprising the third neutral party of representatives from Turkey, Brunei Darussalam, and Norway, among others.
Each of the decommissioned combatants will receive initial assistance socio-economic from the government amounting to PHP100, 000.
Other benefits amounting to some PHP950,000 include health benefits, scholarships for their kids, housing and livelihood projects per MILF member.
At least six government-acknowledged MILF camps are currently being transformed into peaceful, productive and resilient communities.
“Through these interventions, our combatants will be able to return to mainstream society,” Ebrahim said.
Galvez, meanwhile, said the MOA signing sealed their deeper partnership with the MILF conducted in the peace process.
“The TESDA package furthered the promotion of the peace apparatus and strengthened its mechanism that would support the MILF members through the creation of a TESDA skills education group,” he said.
Lapeña, meanwhile, said that all TESDA packages for the MILF are in place.
The MOA signing came a day before the scheduled visit of President Rodrigo Duterte at the old Maguindanao Capitol grounds in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao to witness the decommissioning of 1,060 MILF members and some 940 firearms.
https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1079820
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