Personal-owned weapons excluded from decommissioning, says solon

A lawmaker on Thursday raised concerns over members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) who do not surrender their personal and family-owned firearms to the government amid the decommissioning process.

During a House budget hearing, Lanao del Norte 1st District Representative Mohamad Khalid Dimaporo made a manifestation to inform Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. and military officials about the issue.

“They (MILF) were supposedly 80,000 but when we are talking about their decommissioning they are only willing to decommission mere thousands because they are saying what they can decommission are only firearms that are owned by the organization itself,” Dimaporo said.

“Personal-owned firearms and family-owned firearms are not to be surrendered to the national government,” he added.

Dimaporo said this may lead to the proliferation of loose firearms in the Mindanao area if not addressed.

“This is a problem for us in Mindanao. This is a problem for us in Lanao because we fear that there will be a proliferation of loose firearms if this problem is not resolved,” he said.

GMA News Online has sought comment from MILF Peace Implementing Panel chair Mohagher Iqbal about the matter. He has yet to provide a statement as of posting.

In August, Special Assistant to the President Secretary Antonio Ernesto F. Lagdameo, Jr. said the third phase of the MILF decommissioning process has been completed.

“The completion of the third phase signifies the strong partnership of the government and the MILF to pursue a singular mission of transforming the Bangsamoro,” Lagdameo said.

In July, Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation, and Unity Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said 1,301 MILF combatants will join the third phase of the decommissioning while another 14,000 are expected to follow suit in the next two years.

From 2015 to 2022, a total of 28,844 MILF combatants and 4,625 firearms have been decommissioned.

The Independent Decommissioning Body (IDB) is expected to complete the decommissioning process before the first election in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) in 2025. —NB, GMA Integrated News