QUEZON CITY — Steps to decommission the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) combatants and profile Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) members are critical for ensuring a peaceful electoral process in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) in 2025, according to the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity (OPAPRU). This announcement was made during the Saturday News Forum.

According to Philippines News Agency, director of OPAPRU's International Private Partnership Office, the ongoing decommissioning of MILF combatants has been instrumental in setting the stage for orderly parliamentary elections next year. Additionally, Darwin Wally Wee, director of Communications and Public Affairs at OPAPRU, highlighted the successful socio-economic profiling of MNLF combatants as a significant contributor to the anticipated peaceful elections.

To date, the decommissioning process has seen approximately 26,132 MILF members demobilized across three phases since 2019, with a fourth phase aimed at decommissioning an additional estimated 14,000 combatants underway. Regarding the MNLF, the government has completed socio-economic profiling of about 1,963 members as part of a broader Transformation Program aimed at integrating these combatants into society.

President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. is scheduled to lead the National Peace Consciousness Month celebrations and the 28th anniversary of the 1996 Final Peace Agreement with the MNLF at Malacañan Palace. Wee expressed optimism for the endorsement of the Bangsamoro peace agenda by Moro leaders during this event.

National Peace Consciousness Month, observed every September as per Proclamation 675 issued in 2004, aims to foster awareness and understanding of peace's importance, commemorating the signing of the Final Peace Agreement which ceased hostilities with Moro fighters in the southern Philippines since 1972.