NEWS




7February

Gov’t to fast tract amnesty for MILF fighters

Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao- Amnesty will be granted to thousands of fighters of Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) as among the immediate steps in healing the wounds of conflict brought about by 40 years of revolutionary war waged by Moro rebels that started in 1968. 

“We're trying to fast track the amnesty, but you know the amnesty has to be concurred with by Congress, so we're working on that,” Undersecretary Nabil Tan told ANC’s Early Edition on Wednesday.

Tan, Chair of the GPH Peace Implementing panel acknowledged that those with pending cases would “normally” not be appointed to the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA).

The MILF will push for “provisional appointments” until the rebels are amnestied, Mohagher Iqbal, chairman of the group’s implementing panel told ABS-CBN News.

Around 10 MILF commanders are still facing criminal cases for “common cases” in connection with the Mindanao conflict, he told ABS-CBN News.

Some 35,000 to 40,000 combatants may be covered by the amnesty, he said, based on the list earlier submitted by the MILF.

“They have submitted already the personalities, but we are trying to track the cases, the courts where they’re filed,” Tan said. “It’s a continuing process.”

The amnesty will provide MILF combatants with a “clean slate,” said Benedicto Bacani, executive director of the Cotabato City-based Institute for Autonomy and Governance, said the report by ABS-CBN News.

But he cautioned against putting them in the Bangsamoro government right away without completing the “normalization” process.

“Don’t involve them in governance kasi precisely they are not ready yet,” he told ABS-CBN News.

Bacani said the MILF should instead pick “the best and the brightest among the Bangsamoro people.”