Consultations on Bangsamoro's police force continue

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - The Independent Commission on Policing (ICP) is now in its fourth day of consultations with local sectors as part of its in-depth study on a viable police mechanism for the proposed Bangsamoro political entity.

The ICP, chaired by Randall Beck, an assistant commissioner of the Royal Canadian mounted Police, operates on a mandate from the October 15, 2012 Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro (FAB) between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

The government and MILF’s concept of a Bangsamoro police force is civilian or “non-military” in character, apolitical, and free from control of any partisan organization.

The ICP’s main task is to conduct studies and produce a set of recommendations on “appropriate policing” for the Bangsamoro entity, which is to replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, based on a final GPH-MILF peace compact.

The ICP’s recommendations, which are to be submitted to the GPH and MILF peace panels, shall reflect actual assessments and public perceptions on an efficient, acceptable police force that will uphold human rights and protect people in the proposed Bangsamoro region regardless of their tribal and sectarian identities.

The Mindanao Press Bureau of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP), in an emailed communiqué, said one of the ICP’s task is to help settle the remaining normalization annex to the FAB.

The GPH and MILF panels have yet to agree on the context of the normalization and power sharing annexes to the document, which is to become the basis for a final peace compact that would pave the way for the ARMM’s replacement with a new Bangsamoro self-governing entity.

The two panels had earlier affixed to the FAB the approved annexes on transitional arrangements and modalities, and on revenue generation-and-wealth sharing, during previous exploratory talks in Malaysia.

Beck is overseeing their studies on “policing" in the proposed Bangsamoro entity with the help of his subordinate ICP commissioners Cedrick Netto, an Australian, and Yuji Eusugi from Japan, who are both peace and security experts, retired Philippine National Police officials Ricardo De Leon, Lina Sarmiento, and Amerodin Hamdag, and the MILF's Von Al-Haq.