400 ex-MILF fighters as ‘palaw’ rangers I greening program

The BARMM’s Minister of Environment, Natural Resources, and Energy, Abdulraof Macacua at his recent guesting at the weekly “Kapehan sa Bangsaoro” media forum in Cotabato City. (PHOTO VIA ALI MACABALANG / MANILA BULLETIN / MINDANAO EXPOSE’)

COTABATO CITY --- The Bangsamoro region’s Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources, and Energy (MENRE) will recruit former fighters of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) as forest rangers to implement the government’s greening program in the region.

Bangsamoro Parliament Member and MENRE Minister Abdulraof Macacua who was appointed as concurrent Executive Secretary at the Office of Chief Minister Ahod “Murad” Ebrahim  said last November 12 that the hiring of 400 forest rangers from the BIAF would pursue the normalization track of the 2014 peace accord with the MILF.

Macacua is more known as “Sammy Gambal Almansoor,” his pseudonym as chief of staff of the MILF’s Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF), which Ebrahim once headed before their central committee named him MILF chairman a few weeks after founding chieftain Ustadz Salamat Hashim passed away on July 13, 2003.

In his first appearance at the weekly “Kapihan sa Bangsamoro” media forum here, he  said: “The (hiring of 400 BIAF former combatants as forest rangers) would be like hitting two birds with one stone,” referring to the implementation of the normalization track and the enhanced greening program.

Macacua tagged the prospected rangers as “palaw guards,” who he said are the most potent protectors of mountains where they reside for decades. “Palaw” means mountain in Maguindanaon and Maranao dialects.

The greening program in the region has a total allocation next year of P300-million covering planting and protecting trees in 6,600-hectare mountain areas in Maguindanao alone for year 2010, he said.

Macacua said the prospected 400 “palaw” rangers will come from the BIAF not covered yet by the decommissioning process and are retaining their service firearms to protect the remaining forest ranges in the region.

“They are the real forest rangers because they live in the forests and are aware of any intrusion,” he said.

Higher authorities led by President Duterte officially decommissioned 1,060 BIAF fighters and their 920 firearms in formal ceremonies last September 7. Some of those decommissioned have undergone in-camp trainings alongside police and military counterparts to constitute the Joint Peace and Security Teams (JPSTs) for security details in Bangsamoro official activities and in state-recognized MILF enclaves.

Those eyed for recruitment as forest rangers will undergo formal trainings on the mechanics of effective planting and protection of trees in logged over areas in the Bangsamoro, focused initially in Maguindanao, Macacua said.

The region, officially known as the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), covers Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-tawi provinces; the cities of Marawi, Lamitan, and Cotabato; and 63 barangays in six North Cotabato towns.

Maguindanao is said to have the most number of Timber License Agreements (TLAs) long granted by the national government before the creation of the BARMM and its predecessor – the 29-year old Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). charALI MACABALANG / MANILA BULLETIN /MINDANAO EXPOSE’)

Macacua also announced that as of last October, his ministry has already remitted to the BARMM treasury a total of P134 million in mostly forest