GPH-MILF hammering out guidelines for implementation of normalization phase

The article also said that President Duterte approved Monday the executive order on the implementation of the Annex on Normalization, one of the tracks under the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), the final peace deal signed by the government and the MILF in 2014 after four decades of conflict.

Galvez said both sides were targeting to finish the implementing rules and regulations of the normalization aspect next month.

The normalization process has four major components such as the security aspect, socioeconomic development program, confidence-building measures, and transitional justice and reconciliation.

The security component involves the decommissioning of MILF combatants and putting their weapons beyond use, and the disbandment of private armed groups.

The MILF-Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF) has about 40,000 members scattered all over Mindanao. 

Under the normalization track, Galvez said the MILF forces would be decommissioned in four phases, of which the ceremonial decommissioning of 145 combatants was completed in 2015 under former President Benigno Aquino III.

“Thirty percent, or more or less 12,000 combatants, [are] scheduled [for decommissioning] late this year,” Galvez said as quoted by Inquirer.net Thursday.

Another 35 percent will be decommissioned in 2020, while the remaining will be done in 2021-2022 before the signing of the exit agreements, he added. (Source: Inquirer.net, 3-10-19)