Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez Jr. said the government is making a “work plan” to dismantle known private armed groups (PAGs) in Mindanao and make the national and local elections in 2022 more peaceful.
Galvez, special adviser of the National Task Force for the Disbandment of Private Armed Groups (NTF-DPAGs), said security forces have disbanded 14 PAGs in Mindanao in the past 12 months. This was more than double their target of five PAGs this year.
“We cannot allow these lawless groups to sow fear, mistrust and violence among our people. The NTF-DPAGs must therefore be more vigilant and ensure that next year’s political exercise will be safe, peaceful and orderly,” he said.
The peace adviser recently attended the year-end assessment of the NTF-DPAG where he stressed the need to intensify its operations especially since tensions related to the upcoming May 2022 elections “are starting to brew in communities.”
As such, the task force discussed the creation of a work plan for 2022 which will be implemented across the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) and in Regions 9 to 12.
Galvez said the plan includes action points on enhancing the NTF-DPAG’s policy and capacity development, strategic communications, networking and linkaging, monitoring and evaluation, validation of PAGs, legal efforts, reintegration and rehabilitation, and feedback mechanisms.
“What is crucial at this point is to sustain the gains we have achieved over the past year and disband the three remaining PAGs we have identified,” he said.
The peace adviser also proposed the creation of the NTF-DPAGs Coordinating Committee to integrate and synchronize various tasks that will be undertaken by the task force and other stakeholders.
These include the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine National Police, BARMM government, and other local government units.
“Given the rising tensions among rival clans because of the upcoming polls, we must prevent political families from raising or remobilizing their own private armies," said NTF-DPAG chairman Secretary Eduardo Ano, of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).
"By doing so, we protect Filipino communities from the trauma of witnessing or becoming victims of election-related violence or intimidation,” he added.
The national government’s program on the disbandment of PAGs is being carried out through the security component of the Normalization Track under the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) signed between the national government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in 2014.