Gov’t, Moro Islamic Liberation Front peace panels hold first meeting under Marcos

From the Philippine Daily Inquirer (Jul 3, 2023):Gov’t, Moro Islamic Liberation Front peace panels hold first meeting under Marcos (By: Germelina Lacorte)

REVITALIZING TRUCE ACCORD |Cesar Yano, chair of the government peace implementing panel, greets his Moro Islamic Liberation Front counterpart, Mohagher Iqbal, following the peace panel meeting in Davao City on July 1. (Photo from the Office the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity)

DAVAO CITY, Davao del Sur, Philippines — The peace implementing panel of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has formally relayed to its government counterpart its earlier call to meet in Kuala Lumpur and formally launch the newly constituted peace panels before they will start formal talks aimed at protecting the gains of the 9-year-old peace deal.

For the first time under the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the two panels met here on Saturday, to renew their commitment to lasting peace in Mindanao, barely two weeks after seven MILF members were killed in a law enforcement operation by combined police and military forces in Datu Paglas, Maguindanao del Sur at the dawn of June 18.

In a joint communique signed by Cesar Yano, chair of the government peace implementing panel and his MILF counterpart, Bangsamoro Minister Mohagher Iqbal, both panels expressed sympathy for the seven slain MILF members.

They also thanked President Marcos for immediately directing the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate the incident although the MILF panel “reiterated the indispensability of a separate inquiry to be done by an independent body to bolster confidence in the findings.”

According to the joint statement, the MILF panel “manifested to the government panel its intention to pursue the established norm of launching the newly constituted panels through a meeting in Kuala Lumpur prior to the conduct of formal meetings” along with its proposal to revitalize the truce monitors.

The government panel committed to conveying and elevating both proposals to the president.

Both panels, however, renewed their commitment to implement the 9-year-old Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), the peace deal between the government and the former Moro rebel group that eventually led to the establishment of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), the expanded autonomous region largely ran and administered by the former rebels.

Among the other points that both parties agreed to during the meeting were to further study the proposals for the Armed Forces of the Philippines redeployment parameters and areas for the joint security assessment, transition plan for the Joint Peace and Security Teams, and the integrated framework on the implementation of camps transformation program for the initial 33 barangays of the six previously acknowledged MILF camps.

Full decommissioning

They also recognized the “urgency and centrality” of the full implementation of the decommissioning program through the delivery of socioeconomic development programs for the combatants. To achieve this, both panels agreed to create a socioeconomic study committee to discuss and recommend for the panels’ approval the components, implementation framework and funding strategies for the socioeconomic development packages for the decommissioned combatants and the transformation of former MILF camps into thriving communities.

Both parties also agreed to intensify resource mobilization to support the implementation of the CAB by engaging with international state and nonstate donors willing to support the normalization process.

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