Marcos says gov't will fulfill commitment to Bangsamoro peace agreements
On the ninth anniversary of the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. vowed that the national government will fulfill its commitment to the Bangsamoro peace agreements.
“For nine years, the peace pact has stood firm and the Bangsamoro people have thrived and flourished. We shall ensure that they continue to do so. Under this administration, the political and normalization tracks of the peace agreement continue to gain momentum. Our partners in the BARMM (Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao) continue to deliver on their commitments in both tracks with the recent passing of the critical passing of the Bangsamoro electoral code,” Marcos said in a video message.
“We in the national government will do our part to fulfill our commitments under the peace agreements and see its full implementation. We shall not waiver from this. We have said before, the path to lasting peace is always under construction. We shall build and walk this path together so that our children and generations that follow shall live lives of prosperity and peace,” he added.
For his part, Secretary Isidro Purisima, acting Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation, and Unity (OPPARU), shared the milestones of the Bangsamoro government in both the political and normalization tracks.
In a “Laging Handa” briefing, Purisima mentioned the passage of the Bangsamoro Organic Law, which creates the government and the different ministries in their region, as one of the achievements in the political track.
He said four out of six codes have been created, including their electoral code.
Purisima also touted the new set of officials in the Transition Authority who recently took their oath under the Marcos administration.
“We can see the unification of our leaders of the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front) and the MNLF. And what’s important here is that we have a new generation of leaders. These are children of former combatants, the leaders of combatants. They have unified and they are part of implementing the transformation and governance here in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao,” Purisima said.
For the normalization track, which involves the decommissioning of MILF combatants, Purisima said they have decommissioned 24,844 out of 40,000 of them.
A total of 4,625 weapons of former combatants were taken from the former combatants, he added.
Purisima said they have also established 20 joint peace and security teams that are assigned to areas that were previously MILF camps.
The Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro is the final peace agreement between the Government of the Philippines and the MILF. It was signed on March 27, 2014. Jaspearl Tan/DMS
