COTABATO CITY – Decommissioned combatants of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) received Thursday, June 10, 30 units of mobile rice mill equipment as part of the joint socioeconomic development project between the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) and Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
The initial units of equipment were turned over at Camp Darapanan, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao.
The project, amounting to P30 million, aims to benefit the identified major camps of the MILF combatants, their families, and immediate relatives.
OPAPP and DTI are the funding and implementing agencies of the said socioeconomic project called “Inter Cabinet Cluster Mechanism on Normalization-Peaceful Return and Aggressive Inclusion Social Entrepreneurship (ICCMN-PRAISE).”
The project fund was stipulated on a memorandum of agreement (MoA) OPAPP and DTI has forged on September 11, 2020, which aims to promote the meaningful implementation of the Annex on Normalization of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB).
Present during the event were Minister for Trade, Investment, and Tourism Abu Amri Taddik, Deputy Minister for Environment, Natural Resources and Energy (MENRE) Akmad Brahim, DTI Undersecretary Abdulgani Macatoman, Ariel Hernandez of ICCMN, Parliament Member Shahara Mastura, MILF combatants, and other key dignitaries.
Taddik expressed his gratitude to the initiative of the national government to fulfill its commitment under the CAB.
“This project is one of the ways to integrate our former combatants into the society by giving them sustainable livelihood that could improve their way of life,” he said.
Meanwhile, Macatoman said more significant programs are set to benefit the said ex-combatants.
“Magpapatuloy po ang programa natin dahil sa suporta ng OPAPP at ang commitment ng Pangulong Rodrigo Duterte sa CAB, at pagtupad ng adhikain ng peace process,” he said.
Hernandez, on the other hand, stressed that agriculture is “one of the biggest hopes for the country’s economy to recover because of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
In a message through MENRE Deputy Minister Akmad Brahim, BARMM’s Chief Minister Ahod B. Ebrahim also resonated with the aims of OPAPP and DTI, and emphasized that the “transition period is not just centered on establishing the regional bureaucracy in the Bangsamoro region.”
“The other half of the process is the normalization track which aims to transform our combatants as productive civilian members of the society and reform their respective communities from decades-long of unrest and conflict,” he said.
“The socioeconomic aspect of the normalization process enables the MILF combatants and their families to utilize equipment that can provide a livelihood for them,” he added. (BANGSAMORO INFORMATION OFFICE / MINDANAO EXPOSE’)
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