Philippines: MILF to decommission 40,000 combatants

The Moro Islamic Libe­ration Front (MILF) will decommission 40,000 combatants of its Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAFF) when the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) will be ratified, local media reported on Sunday.

A plebiscite will be held on Jan. 21 and Feb. 6 to ratify the bill and once the BOL is ratified, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao would be created.

Jannati Mimbantas, MILF Northeastern Mindanao Front commander, said that an international decommissioning body (IDB) -- under the observance of independent international monitoring team -- was created by the government and the MILF, according to the Manila Times.

Mimbantas said that Turkey would lead the seven-member IDB with Brunei and Norway as members on the international side, General Reynaldo Abu and Dr. Mario Abuja for the government, and Jannati and Jack Abbas for the MILF.

Decommissioning of the combatants would be done in three stages and the last decommissioning is expected in 2022 when the organic law shall have been fully implemented, he added.

The measure for greater autonomy creates the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, a region with more political and fiscal powers including a bigger annual block grant equivalent to 5 percent of the total national internal revenue collection.

While the establishment of the current Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) is the result of negotiations between the government and the MNLF, the Bangsamoro Organic Law has been forged as a result of the peace agreement that the MILF signed with former President Benigno Aquino III in 2014.

The MILF is a breakaway group of the MNLF.