Reforming Basilan militants start life again with help from ARMM

COTABATO CITY --- Reforming Islamic State-inspired militants in Basilan wants a national amnesty program to complement a domestic reconciliation campaign fostering sustainable peace in the island province.The appeal is from more than a hundred Sayyaf members in Basilan who surrendered in batches in the past 24 months through the intercession of provincial officials and the inter-agency regional peace and order council in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.The former Islamic State-inspired militants were among thousands of residents who benefited from the March 5 to 15 People’s Day medical and dental outreach missions of ARMM’s Humanitarian Emergency Assistance and Response Team, most known as HEART, in different towns in Basilan.The activities of HEART during the period were capped off with the dispersal of tons of food supplies by employees overseeing ARMM’s Bangsamoro Regional Inclusive Development for Growth and Empowerment program.Newly-accomplished infrastructure projects of ARMM’s Health, Education, Livelihood and Protection Synergy program, among them barangay governance facets, were also inaugurated alongside the People’s Day events in different Basilan municipalities.Erstwhile Abu Sayyaf bandit Wiril Muril told reporters Thursday he and his companions who have returned to the fold of law are thankful to the ARMM-BRIDGE program and all regional line agencies helping usher them back into mainstream society.The ARMM-BRIDGE food distribution activity in Basilan was part of the regional government’s Apat na Dapat poverty alleviation initiative, focused on providing poor sectors with food, water, shelter and electricity.The chief executive of the autonomous region, Gov. Mujiv Hataman, who has ministerial control over the ARMM-BRIDGE program, led the release of food supplies to Basilan residents, among them former Abu Sayyaf members. We thought then life would be more dangerous if we leave the Abu Sayyaf. There was fear of persecution by society and by the military. We were wrong. There was a tranquil turnaround from our wicked ways to a peaceful life, one with dignity and honor, Muril said in Filipino.The ARMM-BRIDGE had earlier built dozens of core shelters for former Abu Sayyaf bandits who have pledged allegiance to the Philippine flag in groups in the presence of police and military officials.Lt. Gen. Carlito Galvez, Jr. of the Western Mindanao Command said Thursday they have been receiving in recent weeks more surrender feelers from remnants of the Abu Sayyaf in Basilan, apparently convinced of the ARMM government’s sincerity in helping them start life anew once they leave the group. Those still in the jungles have been seeing the sprouting of so many ARMM road projects there and these projects help entice them to surrender, Galvez said.The Abu Sayyaf boasts of allegiance to the Islamic State. It is feared for its practice of beheading captives kidnapped elsewhere if ransom demands are not met.Muril said they want Malacañang to forge a special amnesty program for their former companions still in the Abu Sayyaf ranks, one attuned with the peace initiatives of the ARMM and the Basilan provincial government. Many, if not all, joined the Abu Sayyaf because of promises that we found empty. We were made to believe it was waging a holy war. There is no sanctity in kidnappings and abusing helpless people, said a former militant, who asked to be identified only as Adori for security reasons.He is presently helping convince at least 16 of his relatives in the Abu Sayyaf to yield and turn in their firearms to the government.Galvez said he can relay to President Rodrigo Duterte, through the General Headquarters of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the desire of Abu Sayyaf bandits who surrendered through the efforts of the ARMM government for them to be covered with an amnesty based on the context of national reconciliation and unification.