The Office for Bangsamoro Transformation of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity expressed its regret over the decision of the Moro Islamic Liberation postponing the decommissioning of its remaining combatants.

The OPAPRU said around 14,000 MILF fighters and 2,450 weapons would have been covered by the decommissioning, the fourth and final group, which is a major commitment under the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), particularly the Annex on Normalization.

“We also express our disagreement with the MILF recent resolution, claiming that the government has not delivered substantially on its socioeconomic commitments,” it said in a statement released on Thursday.

The MILF, in a resolution by its central committee, said it will decommission its remaining forces only upon the substantial compliance by the Philippine government in other tracks of normalization.

According to the MILF, not a single one of the 26,145 fighters decommissioned so far have undergone transition to a productive civilian life.

The OPAPRU said the government has invested around P4 billion since 2019 in socioeconomic support for the decommissioned MILF fighters who were all in the Philippine Health Insurance Corp.

It said around 60 percent of the fighters were provided with civil registration and over 30 percent have undergone skills training and received emergency employment. DMS