The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has released P137.6 million in financial assistance for some 1,376 decommissioned former combatants of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) during a payout in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao on February 21.

The payout was the second phase of decommissioning activities where the Department distributed P80,000 each to the former combatants under the Bangsamoro Transitory Family Support Package (BTFSP) and P20,000 each through the Livelihood Settlement Grant (LSG). The BTFSP is an outright cash assistance which may be used by the beneficiaries for their basics needs based on priorities such as for food, family, hygiene, sleeping, kitchen and shelter kits, medical, educational, and transportation, among others. LSG may be used as seed capital to start a micro-enterprise or to purchase starter kits for the re-establishment of damaged livelihood.

Representatives from the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) and the Independent Decommissioning Body created by the Philippine government and MILF also attended the activity to oversee the process of decommissioning of MILF forces and weapons. 

For this year, a total of 12,000 MILF fighters will be decommissioned with the rest of the payouts to be done between 2021 and 2022.

The aid packages form part of the Socio-Economic Program component provided for under Executive Order (EO) No. 79 signed in March 2019 which focuses on the Normalization Track of the Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro (CAB), the final peace agreement signed between the government and MILF.  

EO 79 aims to reintegrate decommissioned MILF combatants to mainstream society through the provision of livelihood and other appropriate programs and services.

In September 2019, President Rodrigo Duterte and some of his Cabinet Secretaries, including DSWD Secretary Rolando Bautista, witnessed the first phase of decommissioning involving 1,190 ex-combatants in Simuay, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao. -30-