A symbolic issuance of safe conduct passes from the National Amnesty Commission for grant of amnesty to ex-rebels so that they can freely move around started, Wednesday, June 11 in Cotabato City facilitated by lawyers Leah Tanodra-Armamento and Jamar Kualayan, chairperson and commissioner of the National Amnesty Commission, respectively.

The activity was witnessed by Bangsamoro Chief Minister Abdulrauf Macacua, along with Brig. Gen. Romeo Juan Macapaz, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, representatives from the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, and the prosecutor for Region 12, Mariam Veloso Mastura, were present in the event.

The Philstar in its report on Thursday, June 11 said that the modalities of the commission’s grant of safe conduct passes, or SCPs, to qualified beneficiaries to enable them to work out their applications for amnesty were explained clearly to reporters by Tanodra-Armamento, Kulayan, and two other NAC officials, Mohammad Jamalul Giducos and Ser-me Ayuyao.

“Our office is open to all those who wish to secure safe conduct passes,” Tanodra-Armamento said as quoted by the Philstar.

Top commanders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front who are now members of the 80-seat parliament, among them the Yakan Dan Asnawi, the Maranaw Ali Solaiman, and Jack Abas, a Maguindanaon and a couple from an ethnic Manobo community in Kalamansig town in Sultan Kudarat, were the first recipients of the SCPs in the symbolic activity in Cotabato City.

It was President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. who authorized the NAC to issue SCPs to amnesty applicants during his visit last April 11 to the headquarters of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division at Camp Siongco in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte.