THE Development and Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) assured the House of Representatives it will fund the decommissioning of the remaining 14,000 combatants of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in the 2024 national budget.
Responding to Deputy Minority Leader and Basilan Rep. Mujiv Hataman’s queries during the plenary deliberations of the General Appropriations Bill for next year, Committee on Appropriations vice chairman Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo, one of the budget measure’s sponsors, bared that the decommissioning allocation for next year was P901 million.
“The decommissioning of the MILF combatants is one of the things that must be accomplished for peace to be complete in Bangsamoro. For several years we have worked hard and strived to reach peace, so I hope we can finish it,” Hataman, former governor of the now-defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said.
The amount, Quimbo continued, covers the decommissioning of over 9,000 combatants. For 2025, she further explained, over 4,000 more combatants will be decommissioned.
In last year’s deliberation of the national budget, Hataman said he asked if the decommissioning, through the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation, and Unity (OPAPRU), could be funded using unprogrammed funds, and the answer was “yes.”
“But until now, I have asked the OPAPRU, but nothing has been received and no allocation has been given from unprogrammed funds. Remember, we already have a large amount—more than P200 billion—that we used in unprogrammed funds,” the Basilan lawmaker said during deliberations on Wednesday.
After a long suspension of the deliberations and discussions on the sidelines, Hataman asked, “Can I have the commitment of the distinguished sponsor and the DBCC on the allocation of the remaining combatants of the MILF for the year 2024?”
To which Quimbo replied, “Yes, Madam Speaker.”
Hataman said he hopes this expression of commitment from the DBCC translates to the actual funding of the remaining decommissioning activities of the peace process.
Some 26,145 MILF fighters have been decommissioned as of this year. The fourth phase of the process starts in the last quarter of this year.
The decommissioning of MILF combatants is among the key provisions of the Annex on Normalization of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), or the peace agreement between the government of the Philippines and the MILF signed in 2014.
Combatants who lay down their arms will receive P100,000 each in transitional cash assistance from the government.
