Camp Lucero, North Cotabato—Around 225 members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front underwent basic military training yesterday with the military’s 602nd Brigade in Camp Lucero.
The former combatants of the MILF’s Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces will complete the 30-day standard military training to prepare them as members of Joint Peace and Security Team.
The JPST, which will be composed of 1,400 soldiers, 1,600 policemen, and 3,000 BIAF members, will serve as a community security force during the decommissioning process.
The training will pave the way for the BIAF combatants to be enlisted in the Armed Forces of the Philippines or Philippine National Police.
“Today’s event is the manifestation of our desire to sustain the peace process and our commitment to implement the Comprehensive Agreement of the Bangsamoro (CAB) in the full implementation of the peace process,” presidential peace adviser Carlito Galvez Jr. said.
Galvez said at least 200 JPST members shall serve as security forces to ensure the safety of residents within the six government-acknowledged MILF camps and other identified MiLF communities during the decommissioning process which officially begins on September 7.
“The military and police are the only ones allowed to carry firearms. After this basic military training, they will be given military ranks as reservist so they could officially bring their weapons as members of JPST as peacekeepers,” said Bangsamoro Transportation and Communications Minister Dickson Hermoso, who is a co-chairman of the Joint Peace and Security Committee together with Von Al Haq from the MILF.
“Their personal firearms as part of JPST will be turned over to the Armed Forces of Philippines as property of the Philippine government during the training and the same will be issued to them when they will be deployed to maintain peace and security in areas that have been mutually identified by the government and the MILF,” Hermoso added.
The JPST will serve until the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao interim government ends its term in 2022.
“Many years ago this type of event was simply unimaginable. No one ever thought that the MILF combatants will ever be in a military camp to undertake a military training,” said BARMM Interim Chief Minister Murad Ebrahim.
“But many previously unimaginable things have already happened and are actually happening now right before our eyes. The MILF has taken the mantle of leadership over the Bangsamoro Government in partnership with the government of the Republic of the Philippines,” Murad added.