(Image courtesy in OPAPRU)
MANILA – Delegates from the Embassy of Canada in the Philippines said the peacekeeping efforts of the Joint Peace and Security Team (JPST) are crucial to the normalization process in the Bangsamoro government.
In a social media post on Thursday, the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation, and Unity (OPAPRU) reported a total of 778 JPTS members have graduated from Peacekeeping Training since December 2021.
Of the 778, 190 are personnel of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), 216 are Philippine National Police (PNP), and 372 are Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces - Moro Islamic Liberation Front (BIAF-MILF).
The Canadian embassy officials, along with the representatives of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Women, visited the MILF Camp Darapanan community on Tuesday, to oversee the peace-building efforts and developmental interventions being carried out by the GPH-JPST in the area.
Canadian Embassy First Secretary Stephen Duval said the efforts of the government and the MILF to the normalization process, through the operations of the JPST, has been significant to the push of lasting peace in the Bangsamoro region.
“The JPSTs are a really interesting case study and reeks [of] a very strong signal of how long you are working together for a lasting peace and normalization in the Bangsamoro. For Canada’s part, we are very proud to be a partner in that process in supporting efforts such as the Bangsamoro Normalization Trust Fund as well as Women, Peace and Security efforts in the Bangsamoro,” Duval said.
The JPST is primarily tasked to track and document private armed groups, as well as to help in the reduction and control of weapons in the Bangsamoro area.
It also supports the observance of the existing ceasefire agreement between the government and militant groups, to address and prevent hostilities; work on security arrangements for activities and personalities involved in the peace process, and support dispute resolution initiatives on the ground.
The deployment of peacekeeping teams within the Bangsamoro areas has contributed to a 'rido' (family feud) settlement in Balindong, Lanao del Sur.
It has also helped recover a stolen motorcycle in Columbio town, Sultan Kudarat province.
They are also providing security during the ongoing third phase of the decommissioning process for MILF-BIAF combatants and their weapons.
OPAPRU Director Wendell Orbeso, head of the Joint Normalization Committee GPH Secretariat and the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB Implementing Department, said the Canadian government is among the long-standing partners of the Philippine government during the negotiation and stages of the Bangsamoro peace process.
Apart from peacekeeping efforts, the GPH-MILF Joint Peace and Security Committee also pushes for socioeconomic development programs in the entire Bangsamoro region.
The GPH Task Force for Decommissioned Combatants and their Communities (TFDCC) Secretariat has been extending transitional cash assistance, values transformation and technical vocational education training; livelihood packages for MILF cooperatives such as mobile rice mills, halal meat shop and abattoir, and farm machinery; as well as infrastructures projects such as rural health units and irrigation systems in the Bangsamoro region. (PNA)
