It is expected that 35% of the combatants will be decommissioned next year, and the remaining will be in 2021 to 2022 before the signing of the Exit Agreement as stipulated in the CAB.
The CAB, which was signed by the government and the MILF in 2014, has two tracks: the Political track includes the ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) and establishment of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM); the Normalization track, on the other hand, primarily involves the decommissioning of combatants and the transformation of six MILF camps into peaceful and resilient communities.
President Rodrigo Duterte on April signed Executive Order (EO) 79 Implementing the Annex on Normalization Under the CAB, which brings together at least 17 government agencies to work on the normalization track.
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, who co-chaired the meeting with Galvez, emphasized the need for the concerned government agencies to work collectively in ensuring that the programs under the normalization track will be carried out within the desired timeframe.
“The government has to make good on its commitment,” he said, adding that the work in the normalization track is in consistent with the President’s pledge to implement all the signed peace agreements with the Moro fronts.
“Our first meeting today is the first step towards more accomplishments,” he emphasized.
Under EO 79, members of the of the ICCMN include the departments of Defense, Interior, Justice, Social Welfare and Development, Agriculture, Education, Finance, Health, Labor, Budget, Trade, Information and Communications, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, National Economic Development Authority, National Security Council, National Commission on Indigenous People, and the Commission on Higher Education.
The ICCMN’s main powers and function include coordination and mobilization of government agencies in the implementation of the normalization program, policy advising and support to the different modalities and mechanisms of normalization.
It will also supervise and monitor all socio-economic interventions under the normalization program and create a working group for vulnerable sectors in the Bangsamoro that will recommend a set of interventions.
Aside from the normalization program, one of the tasks of the ICCMN is to generate resources and funding, as well as provide the administrative provisions of the EO 79.
The ICCMN is subdivided into four clusters based on the four major components of the normalization track: the security aspect, socio-economic development program, confidence-building measures, and transitional justice and reconciliation.