The Aquino administration and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front have agreed on the composition of the body that will spearhead the decommissioning of MILF fighters and their weapons.

Government chief negotiator Miriam Ferrer said the International Decommissioning Body shall be composed of three foreign experts including the chairperson, and four local experts jointly nominated by the Philippine government and the MILF.

“The IDB would be the one to supervise, oversee, and basically implement the decommissioning process,” Ferrer said in a statement yesterday.

“The procedure is for the MILF to submit a list of weapons and combatants, an inventory. After which, the IDB will verify the list and work towards the programming of the decommissioning schedule as agreed upon in the annex on normalization,” she said.

Ferrer said the creation of the IDB is a priority so that the verification of the inventory that would be submitted by the MILF can begin.

“Everything proceeds from there. Until we are able to verify the number of weapons, the kinds of weapons and also the combatants—who are they, where are they located?—we can’t actually begin, for example, the socio-economic programs that we’ll be providing for the communities of these combatants,” she said.

But Ferrer quickly clarified that “there will be no wholesale integration of the forces of the MILF into the Armed Forces of the Philippines nor the Philippine National Police” similar to the integration of the Moro National Liberation Front undertaken during the Ramos administration.

“However, interested and qualified former combatants are welcome to join anytime,” Ferrer said.

Earlier, Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Sonny Coloma said the government will submit to Congress the final draft of the Bangsamoro Basic Law within the month as soon as the Palace legal team concludes its due diligence on the legislative measure.

The proposed BBL will be certified as urgent by President Benigno Aquino III.

It aims to create the Bangsamoro - a political entity resulting from the final peace pact between the government and the MILF, which would replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Congress leaders have committed to pass the BBL by December to pave the way for the holding of a plebiscite in the proposed Bangsamoro territory by the first quarter of 2015. -- Joyce Pangco Panares/Manila Standard Today