Govt, MILF seal truce in Basilan town

Press Clip Source: The Manila Times
Link to Source: Here

(UPDATE) THE government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) have agreed to put an end to the fighting between their forces in Ungkaya Pukan town, Basilan.

Three soldiers and three MILF fighters were killed in the clash, Western Mindanao Command spokesman Abdurasad Sirajan reported.

The agreement was signed Thursday by the government and MILF's Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH) and Ad Hoc Joint Action Group (Ahjag), and the Non-Violent Peace Force, announced Presidential Assistant David Diciano, head of Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity (Opapru) Bangsamoro Transformation Program.

"We would like to thank the MILF CCCH and Ahjag for meeting with us and helping find ways on how we could immediately de-escalate the situation, and finally put an end to the armed conflict," Diciano said.

He arrived in Basilan on Wednesday, a day after a firefight broke out between troops from the Philippine Army's 101st Infantry Brigade and members of the MILF-Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces' 114 Base Command (114BC).

Opapru said the two sides agreed to immediately call a ceasefire.

They also decided to pull out MILF reinforcements who are not residents of Barangay Ulitan, who were involved in the fighting; allow the return of the group of 114BC, BIAF-MILF Commander Huram Malangka who are residents of Ulitan and to keep their firearms in their houses while they wait for their decommissioning; register BIAF-MILF residents of Ulitan; and establish a composite detachment of AFP, PNP and BIAF-MILF units who will cooperate in keeping peace and order in the village.

Presidential Peace Adviser Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. commended the ceasefire agreement.

"The ceasefire is a testament that the [government's] and MILF's peace mechanisms, the Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities and the Ad Hoc Joint Action Group, are effective in de-escalating situations of conflict and are working," Galvez said.

Galvez also thanked the MILF Peace Implementing Panel headed by Chairman Mohagher Iqbal "for calling on both sides to de-escalate the situation, and most importantly, ensure the well-being of residents."

"Under the Marcos Administration's banner of unity, let us all work together to make this vision a reality. Let us heed the lessons of the past and apply them, as we continue to move forward and sustain the dividends of the Bangsamoro peace process," he said.