The government must not waste any more time fulfilling its promises to extend assistance to former fighters of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) who availed of the state’s amnesty program.
Sen. Robinhood “Robin” C. Padilla stressed this on Tuesday after chairing a consultative meeting with officials of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) at the Senate.
“Sa totoo lang, ang daming pinaguusapan ngayon na hindi pa pinaguusapan. Dapat pinaguusapan, paano tayo makaka-deliver sa pinangako ng gobyerno sa MILF (Today we discussed many things that were not widely known. What we must do now is think of how government will deliver on its promises to the MILF),” said Padilla, who chairs the Senate Committee on Cultural Communities and Muslim Affairs.
During the meeting, participants bared how the government has not fulfilled its promises to former MNLF and MILF fighters who availed of amnesty. Since 2014, only 26,145 decommissioned combatants had received assistance, while 14,000 more have yet to be decommissioned.
Of the 26,145 who received any form of assistance, not all have been given the full socio-economic package promised to them.
“Frustrated ang combatants namin, bakit hanggang ngayon di pa delivered ang commitment ng gobyerno… siguro di dapat parang pagong na umuusad yan (Our combatants are frustrated. Why is the aid promised them not yet delivered… the fulfillment of the promises should not be this slow),” said Mohagher Iqbal, a former official of the MILF and now a member of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority Parliament.
Padilla said he will discuss the matter with fellow Mindanao senators Juan Miguel Zubiri and Ronald dela Rosa, to look into what happened. He said he and Zubiri in particular were surprised over the situation.
“Hindi ba meron tayong pinasang batas? Yun pala kwentuhan pa lang yan. So yan aasikasuhin natin (We passed a law for amnesty that turned out to be all talk. We will do something about it),” he said.
