LEYTE REP. Richard Gomez has criticized the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation, and Unity (OPAPRU) under Sec. Carlito Galvez over the lack of transparency and accountability in the decommissioning of Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) combatants, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported.
During a recent House briefing on the state of the peace process and peace and order situation in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), Gomez said the OPAPRU should have been more eagle-eyed in ensuring that the government is not placed at a disadvantage in the implementation of the normalization track of the peace agreement between the government and the MILF.
“There should
be accountability in the disbursement of government funds. The government
cannot just allocate and release funds without being fully informed of who are
the recipients of government support, without knowing who have availed of the
decommissioning program,” he said.
“It is our
duty as lawmakers and public leaders to scrutinize how public funds are spent
and if such expenditures are advantageous to the government,” he added.
He said the
OPAPRU has admitted it does not have a list of the MILF combatants who have
given up their weapons and returned to the folds of the government.
The OPAPRU,
during the same briefing, told lawmakers it does not have a copy of the list of
decommissioned combatants because it was prepared and vetted by the Independent
Decommissioning Body (IDB) that was created by the government and the MILF to
oversee the process of decommissioning of MILF forces and their weapons.
According to
the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, the IDB is an integral part of
the normalizing structure. The IDB told lawmakers that 24,844 out of the
40,000 targeted MILF combatants have so far been decommissioned, with 4,625
firearms turned over to the government.
“It’s
surprising that even the basic process of having a general list of the
decommissioned combatant is missing. The government is already spending
hundreds of millions of pesos to improve the lives of the combatants, but we do
not even know who they are.”
“It’s been
years and we have been spending so much money without identifying who these
people are. There’s a list but foreigners are holding the list… What is this?
It gives me the suspicion that they are funding something,” Gomez said.
Gomez
likewise questioned the lack of a strict monitoring mechanism to ensure that
those who have been “decommissioned” have not abused the goodwill of the
government. “What is our way of monitoring these people? Paano natin
masisiguro na hindi sila babalik sa kampo nila, lalabanan uli ang gobyerno
pagkatapos makuha ang benepisyo? How do you monitor these
people? How sure are you they will not go back (to being rebels) and fire
against the government? Where did IDB use the financial list? Is it for
financial assistance for livelihood? Or is it financial assistance to sustain
small wars? What? Let us know so we know. I’d like to know,” he said.
Gomez
stressed that lawmakers cannot fully support the government’s peace process
programs without knowing who is benefiting from them.
“If we in the
government don’t know who these people are, why should we continue supporting
them? These are the questions that pop up in my mind. That is the kind of
process they do: Tayo sa gobyerno, bigay lang tayo ng bigay ng tulong sa
kanila, sa mga na-decommissioned. Pero hindi natin alam sino sila. What is our
monitoring mechanism to know where they are now? Where are these people right
now? Where are they living?” he asked.
The briefing
came days after MILF members attacked government soldiers in Basilan’s Ungkaya
Pukan town. The attack sparked two days of fighting that left three soldiers
and five former rebels dead and 15 infantrymen wounded.
The MILF
signed a peace deal with Manila in 2014, but despite the accord, sporadic
clashes occasionally occur in Mindanao. The number of MILF members swelled
during and after the peace talks and received huge government aid.
(Dennis Gutierrez / PDI; and Mindanao Examiner)
