On Monday, people in the South expressed gratitude to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for his two proclamations that granted amnesty to members of two Moro fronts accused of committing crimes in the name of revolution.
Members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Moro National Liberation Front, who are facing criminal charges due to their role in violent secessionist uprisings, are granted amnesty by the president’s Proclamations 405, 406, and 405 last week.
The two declarations, according to Southern Philippines Development Authority administrator Gerry Salapuddin, “augurs well” with cross-sector efforts to promote enduring peace in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao on Monday.
As the head of the MNLF’s revolutionary committee in the island province in the 1970s, Salapuddin—who comes from Tuburan town in the Basilan province of BARMM—was three times gravely injured in combat with soldiers.
“Armed battles are horrible, excruciating, depressing, and disgusting. We have discovered from it that, given the circumstances of Mindanao, the most effective means of establishing peace is via unity and reconciliation and extending it throughout all of its districts,” Salapuddin remarked.
Human rights attorneys in the area who are providing free legal assistance to at least 300 members of the MILF and MNLF—most of them are BARMM residents—have criminal cases pertaining to rebellion pending in various Mindanao courts.
Six provinces and three cities in BARMM are home to officially recognized MILF and MNLF enclaves, the leaders of which are currently collaborating to supervise the regional administration as heads of several ministries or as members of its 80-seat parliament.
The regional government’s spokeswoman, BARMM Local Government Minister Naguib Sinarimbo, expressed his excitement over the president’s two proclamations, which may expedite his peace efforts with the MILF and the MNLF.
That is a positive development that will help us move more quickly toward transforming BARMM into a truly progressive and peaceful zone. We express our gratitude to the President,” stated Sinarimbo.
Muslimin Sema, the chairman of the MNLF central committee and BARMM’s labor minister, claimed that numerous MNLF members had been carelessly sued for crimes “shotgun style” since they were guerillas battling for recognition as Mindanao’s native residents and self-rule under Philippine sovereignty.
“That President Marcos issued Proclamations 405 and 406, we are happy about. We are grateful to him,” Sema stated on Monday.
Sema claimed that the two declarations can spur the MNLF’s efforts to maintain the gains from its final peace agreement with Malacañang, which was signed on September 2, 1996.
The 2012 Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro and the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro, the MILF’s two peace agreements with the government, cleared the way for the plebiscite in 2019 that will create BARMM, displacing the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which had existed for 27 years.
Malacañang’s separate peace agreements with the MNLF and the MILF were mediated by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, a coalition of over 50 Muslim nations that included affluent Middle Eastern and North African petroleum exporting states.
More about the insurgency rebels and their group members receiving amnesty
Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin also signed Executive Order (EO) No. 47, which amended Executive Order No. 125 from 2021 and established the National Amnesty Commission (NAC), on November 22, according to the Presidential Communications Office.
According to Marcos, the NAC’s duties for handling amnesty applications must be updated and revised to comply with the recently issued proclamations.
Proclamations 403, 404, 405 and 406 by the president give amnesty to those who “committed crimes in pursuit of political beliefs,” regardless of whether those offenses are subject to specific criminal penalties under the Revised criminal Code.
“The CPP and all revolutionary forces under its leadership denounce and reject the Marcos amnesty, and declare their unwavering determination to advance the revolutionary armed struggle to end imperialist domination, tyranny, corruption, and oppression under the Marcos regime,” stated Marco Valbuena, the Communist Party of the Philippines’ chief information officer, in a statement.
Proclamation 404 was referred to by the group as a “big sham.”
“The phony Marcos amnesty purports to promote ‘peace, unity, and healing.’ However, addressing the underlying causes of the civil war—widespread social injustice and the absence of true national freedom—is the only way to achieve real, just, and long-lasting peace. However, the group said that the Marcos amnesty scheme primarily aims to appease the Filipino people by rewarding individuals who will abandon the people’s cause and submit to their oppressors and exploiters.
“Like all prior scams, the Marcos amnesty is a massive hoax and just another cash cow. The coffers of bureaucrats and military officials line up with hundreds of millions, if not billions of pesos, granted for unaudited ‘community livelihood’ programs. It further stated that military and police personnel “forcibly enlist civilians as’surrenderees’ or ‘former rebels’ and claim areas as ‘insurgency-free’ in order to access these substantial amounts of public funds.”
