GPH peace panel chair: MILF decommissioning might be derailed if BBL is not enacted

From the Philippine News Agency (Jan 19): GPH peace panel chair: MILF decommissioning might be derailed if BBL is not enacted

The next phase of the decommissioning of arms and forces of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) would not ensue without the passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), the peace panel chair of the Philippine government (GPH) said on Tuesday.

“Kung hindi maipapasa ang batas, medyo maaantala ang ating decommissioning program. (If the BBL is not passed, there will be major delays in our decommissioning program),” GPH peace panel chair Miriam Coronel-Ferrer told reporters on the sidelines of the “Biyaheng-Bangsamoro, Biyaheng Kapayapaan” caravan.

Ferrer said that after the ceremonial decommissioning of 75 weapons and 145 MILF combatants last June 2015, any other undertakings of decommissioning will be postponed unless the BBL is passed and reaches ratification in a plebiscite.

The staggered decommissioning process is stated under the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) wherein 30 percent of MILF arms and forces will be decommissioned upon the passage of the BBL.

Ferrer said that the “decommissioning would change the equation” since thousands of firearms will be handed over to the government as part of the normalization component.

The peace panel chair hope that other programs under the normalization component will still take effect such as the “transitional justice reconciliation, socioeconomic programs for the camps.”

The CAB is a 2014 comprehensive peace accord signed by the government and the MILF. It served as the basis for the original draft of the basic law, which is envisioned to provide for a replacement of the current Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) with a more inclusive and truly autonomous parliamentary regional government.

The “Biyaheng Bangsamoro, Biyaheng Kapayapaan” is a peace caravan initiative of various civil society organizations and peace advocates to raise the general public’s awareness on the Bangsamoro peace process and to push lawmakers to pass the proposed BBL within the present Congress.

The peace caravan made pit stops at the House of Representatives in Quezon City, Katipunan Avenue, Ayala Avenue in Makati City and the Senate in Pasay City.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=848064