PEACE COMRADES. Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez Jr. (center) and Ministry of Environment, Natural, Resources and Energy – Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Minister Abdulrauf Macacua (in black jacket) huddle with former Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) combatants, who will undergo a month-long Joint Peacekeeping and Security Team (JPST) Basic Military Training starting August 1, 2019 along with military counterparts. A total of 225 MILF trainees (inset) will participate in the exercise in Camp Lucero, the headquarters of the Army’s 602nd Infantry Brigade in Carmen, North Cotabato. (Photo courtesy of OPAPP - Mindanao)
KIDAPAWAN CITY –Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) combatants were visibly hesitant as they entered a military camp in North Cotabato that they once plotted to attack in the past.
Camp Lucero, the headquarters and training camp of the Philippine Army’s 602nd Infantry Brigade in Carmen, North Cotabato, is where the 225 former MILF rebels will spend a month to train with their erstwhile enemies beginning Thursday, August 1.
The Joint Peacekeeping and Security Team (JPST) Basic Military Training is part of the peace accord between the MILF and the government, where some 3,000 MILF regulars would be decommissioned and become "community constabularies."
“If they have potentials and are qualified, they will be integrated into the country’s military or the police organizations,” said Ministry of Environment, Natural, Resources and Energy – Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Minister Abdulrauf Macacua, who represented BARMM Interim Chief Minister Ahod “Al Haj Murad” Ebrahim to the event.
After completing the training, the JPST will be tasked to secure the decommissioning process involving other MILF fighters, as well as the site where the decommissioned firearms are being kept.
Macacua said JPST members are mandated to help the police and military in the fight against terrorism and illegal drugs in their respective communities.
In an interview with local reporters, a former MILF combatant said he was still in disbelief that he is now part of the contingent training with government soldiers, whom they used to face in the battlefield.
“I never thought I can reach this place without firing a gun, our enemies are now our comrades,” said the teary-eyed Abdul Nur, a MILF combatant.
Speaking during the opening program, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Secretary Carlito Galvez told the trainees that once they completed training they will form part of the legal security and peacekeepers in their respective communities.
“To the former MILF fighters, it is better to work side by side with the government than fighting it in the battlefield,” Galvez said. (PNA)
