MILF decommissioned combatants at Camp Darapanan, Sultan Kudarat in Maguindanao received units of mobile rice mill equipment from OPAPP and DTI on June 10, 2021.
COTABATO CITY — Decommissioned Combatants (DCs) of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) received Thursday 30 units of mobile rice mill equipment as part of the joint socio-economic 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 in Maguindanao.
The project, amounting to Php30-Million, will 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 socio-economic project called Inter Cabinet Cluster Mechanism on Normalization – Peaceful Return and Aggressive Inclusion Social Entrepreneurship (ICCMN-PRAISE).
The projected fund was reflected on the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) both parties agreed and signed last Sept. 11, 2020 that 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 Akmad Ebrahim, 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 Mujahideens (DCs) as phase two is approaching.
“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 hope for the country’s economy to recover because of the Covid-19 pandemic.”
In his message read by the MENRE deputy minister Ebrahim, Chief Minister Ahod B. Ebrahim said 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,” Ebrahim, who is also the MILF chairman, said.
“The socio-economic 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)
