LAMITAN, Basilan— Some 97 Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) combatants participated in the verification and socio-economic profiling process on July 4, 2024, in this island province.
The verification and profiling process was part of the MNLF Transformation Program currently implemented by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation, and Unity (OPAPRU) through the agreed terms of the GPH-MNLF Management Committee.
The program was designed to uplift the socio-economic conditions of the MNLF guerrillas, their families, and communities, being among the commitments made by the national government under the 1996 Final Peace Agreement with the MNLF.
On September 30, 2023, the OPAPRU launched the MNLF Transformation Program in Basilan where 460 fighters completed the validation, verification, and socio-economic profiling process.
The peace agency sought to complete the profiling of all the remaining MNLF combatants in the province who are among the target beneficiaries for the fiscal year 2023.
Last year, a total of 1,705 MNLF combatants were profiled in Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Lanao del Norte, Cotabato City, Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, and North Cotabato.
Spearheaded by the agency’s MNLF Peace Process Office led by director Jana Gallardo, the verification and profiling process was among the first steps that would qualify the MNLF members to be part of the Transformation Program.
The MNLF Transformation Program aimed to help MNLF combatants make the successful transition into productive, empowered, and self-reliant individuals, and empower them as agents of peace and development.
The program has four major components: security, socio-economic, confidence-building, and community healing and reconciliation.
Under the socio-economic component, MNLF combatants, their families, and communities will receive initial aids such as social protection assistance consisting of Immediate financial cash incentives, health insurance, and civil registration.
“We are committed to working together to develop programs that will empower you and your families to become productive members of our society,” Lamitan City Mayor Roderick Furigay stated in his message.
“Hopefully we pray that in the long run, with the full support and as we stand together in unity as brothers we can achieve success and progress in the entire region in general and in Basilan,” said Awad Hamid, co-chairman of MNLF Socio-economic Committee.
The Mindanao State University (MSU) conducted the profiling and debriefing process of combatants, while the Philippine Statistics Office assisted the beneficiaries in securing their civil registration and Philippine national I.D.
Last July 1, the firearms of 97 MNLF combatants underwent the verification process facilitated by the Joint Body on Management of Arms and Forces composed of representatives from the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Philippine National Police, and the Moro National Liberation Front.
OPAPRU is set to complete the profiling of the remaining MNLF members in Lanao del Sur at the end of July this year and will ramp up the implementation of the Transformation Program in other MNLF communities across the Bangsamoro Region.
