BONGAO TAWI-TAWI. June 26. 2021- Decommissioned Combatants of Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in province of Tawi-Tawi has recently received rice assistant from the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) in partnership with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Officers from the office of Tawi-Tawi Provincial Political Committee Sama Province and BTA- Parliament member Prof. Abdulla A. Ahang facilitated Thursday, June 24, the rice distribution to the decommissioned combatants to ensure that the rice assistance reaches to each combatant or their beneficiaries.

Mr. Radzhadin Ahang, Chief of Staff from the office of MP Ahang spearheaded the distributing along with Tawi-Tawi Provincial Consultant from the office of Ministry of indigenous People’s Affairs (MIPA) Mr. Meham.

The rice assistance is part of a component of the socio-economic package and livelihood Program where the Philippines Government is bound to support BIAF-MILF Decommissioned Combatants through the facilitation of the Independent Decommissioning Body (IDB) as an oversight entity that oversees the implementation of the decommissioning program for MILF Combatants.

The decommissioning program is done by phases/batches until the forty thousand (40) of MILF Combatants are completely decommissioned and return to civilian life enjoying the dividend of peace.

Under the normalization aspects stipulated in the annex of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) signed in 2014 between the Philippines Government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the Philippines Government through the OPAPP has to provide socio-economic package to decommissioned MILF Combatants.