KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews / 29 June)—The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has sought the return of the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team (IMT), after the independent foreign peacekeepers left Mindanao last year due to the non-renewal of its mandate by the Philippine government (GPH).
The MILF Central Committee, headed by MILF chair Al Haj Murad Ebrahim, concurrent interim Bangsamoro Chief Minister, appealed to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to allow the IMT back in the southern Philippines.
“[The GPH should] sanction the immediate return of the International Monitoring Team to ensure that [the] ceasefire is preserved,” the front said in a resolution dated June 20.
Citing the Annex on Normalization signed by the GPH and the MILF, the resolution noted that the IMT, including other mechanisms in the Bangsamoro peace process such as the GPH-MILF Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities and the Ad Hoc Joint Action Group, are supposed to continue to perform their functions.
It said the non-renewal of the Terms of Reference of the IMT since January 2023 “also impacts on the implementation of cessation of hostilities, including violations of international humanitarian law and human rights.”
The wire agency Associated Press (AP) had reported that the IMT left Mindanao on June 30, 2022 after their authority to stay as ceasefire monitors, which must be renewed each year,
was not extended by the then-outgoing administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.
The Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila notified the countries involved in the peacekeeping force in May (2022) of the government’s decision “to no longer renew the mandate of the IMT” after June 30 (2022) “in view of significant accomplishments in the peace process.” It cited the enforcement of peace agreements, including the establishment of a new Muslim autonomous region, which is now being administered by former Muslim rebel commanders under a transition period, according to the AP report.
The MILF’s call for the government to sanction the immediate return of the IMT in Mindanao came on the heels of the death of seven MILF members in Datu Paglas, Maguindanao del Sur during a law enforcement operation jointly conducted by the police and military last June 18.
Maj. Gen. Alex Rillera, commander of the military’s Joint Task Force Central, earlier said the operating troops were serving search warrants for two of those killed for alleged violation of Republic Act 10591 or the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act.
Rillera said the troops were met by gunfire, forcing them to retaliate.
He said they were members of the Islamic State-aligned Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, which the MILF disputed.
First deployed in Mindanao in October 2004, the IMT is composed of military contingents from Malaysia, Brunei, Libya and development experts from Japan, Norway and European Union.
It was tasked to observe and monitor the implementation of the cessation of hostilities and the humanitarian, rehabilitation and development aspects of the agreements signed between the GPH and the MILF. (Bong S. Sarmiento / MindaNews)
