MILF Fighters would be Decommissioned if Autonomy Deal is fully Enforced-Al Haj Murad

• Jul 26, 2018
• Al Iskandar, Luwaran
• HITS: 3716

Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao- Al Haj Murad Ebrahim, Chair of Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the largest faction of Moro Rebels fighting for autonomy in Southern Philippines said in a press conference in Manila that their armed fighters numbering to about 40,000 would be “decommissioned” if an autonomy deal that is expected to be signed into law by the president this week is fully enforced.

“We will decommission our forces, the entire forces,” Murad said during the news conference. He said his guerrilla group has told the government how many fighters it has, although he declined to immediately cite the number of weapons that “will be put beyond use,” an Associated Press report said on July 25.

Al Haj Murad added, “Six of the largest guerrilla camps in the south were already being converted into “productive civilian communities” to help the insurgents return to normal life.” 

Al Haj Murad also appealed to the international community to contribute to a trust fund to be used to finance the insurgents’ transition from decades of waging one of Asia’s longest rebellions.

Al Haj Murad statement came at a time, where both the House of Senate and the House of Representatives have ratified the reconciled version approved by the bicameral conference committee on July 18.

The ratification of the Bangsamoro Organaic Law (BOL) at the HoR was derailed due to infighting for speakership between former Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and then incumbent Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez.

The Associated Press also said in its report that the bill for the creation of a larger autonomous region in the south “seeks to replace an existing poverty- and conflict-wracked autonomous region with a potentially larger, better-funded and more powerful region named Bangsamoro for minority Muslims in the southern third of the largely Roman Catholic nation.

Western governments have welcomed the autonomy pacts, while worrying that small numbers of Islamic State group-linked militants from the Middle East and Southeast Asia could forge an alliance with Filipino insurgents and turn the south into a breeding ground for extremists, the Associated Press also said in its report.

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