His Excellency President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, Excellencies of the Foreign Diplomatic Corps, Members of the Presidential Cabinet, Colleagues in the Bangsamoro Transition Authority, officials of the Independent Decommissioning Body and the various peace mechanisms, the Civil Society Organizations, Members and Comrades in the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, friends and partners for peace and development, my warmest greetings to all of you.
Today marks another milestone in our journey towards peace and development. The MILF manifests again its continuous commitment to fulfill its obligations under the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro.
We reassure our beloved President and all our partners in the peace process that we will continue to uphold our part of the bargain.
The 1,060 combatants who are to be decommissioned today are not ordinary individuals. They are 1,060 individuals whose lives were drastically affected; these are 1,060 stories of love, faith and sacrifice for the sake of Allah and for the aspiration of every Bangsamoro. And they are just the small part of the 12,000 combatants who will undergo the same process. Hence, we extend our heartfelt thanks to our comrades in the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces for their unwavering support for the newly established Bangsamoro Government and their willingness to give peace a chance.
This new chapter can be quite challenging for our comrades. For many years, our training has been grounded on the armed struggle. But now, our brave combatants will face a significantly different form of struggle: to transform the norms to civilian lives and embrace a new mindset: that instead of going to the field for conflict, we will now go to the field to harvest; that instead of carrying firearms, we will now carry tools for work and education; that instead of thinking about a possible encounter the next day, we can now think of opportunities that await us, our children and to those who will follow.
As our decommissioned combatants are assured of socio-economic assistance package, the Bangsamoro Government will also comprehensively monitor the implementation of these projects to make sure that no decommissioned combatant is left behind.
It has been a long road for all of us and we are not yet close to the finish line. So much more needs to be done and so much more needs to be fixed. We thank our partners in the GPH, the OPAPP, the IDB for making this event possible and to the unrelentless support of President Duterte to achieve peace in Mindanao, especially in the Bangsamoro.
I would also like to thank every single Bangsamoro and Filipino who are working side-by-side to achieve peace in this part of the country, just like our BIAF comrades who are also the true champions of this cause.
And of course to our dear partners from the international community, we cannot thank you enough for everything that you have contributed to the peace process.
Finally, to our dear combatants and the youth of the Bangsamoro, the cause will live on in each and every single one of you. Our time in the battlefield is over, but to our youth — it is now your time to face the battle of achieving greatness from the things that you are passionate of, and out of the opportunities that the sacrifices of your elders have created for you. These fruits are what our forefathers would have wanted to see, a community flourishing, a Bangsa that is thriving, and a peaceful region existing.
To everyone who are here today, thank you so much for coming. Shukran and May the Almighty bless us all.
Delivered at the Old Provincial Capitol Grounds, Simuay, Sultan Kudarat on September 7, 2019
