Members of a House body, leaders of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) and the Third Party Monitoring Team (TPMT) met on Monday to discuss the status of the Bangsamoro peace process.

During the meeting, BARMM governors voiced their views to the TPMT on the peace process with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Sulu Gov. Abdusakur Tan urged TPMT officials to engage with local government units more frequently as they know more about what is happening on the ground.

“We would like to suggest you kindly engage with us more often. We want to sit down with you so that you would know what is on the ground, and you would know what have you reached, and what have you monitored, insofar as the progress of this peace process is concerned,” he said.

TPMT chairman Heino Marius and member Sam Chittick assured the committee that they would meet again with BARMM local officials to discuss existing and other issues raised in Monday’s discussion.

Meanwhile, House Special Committee on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity chairperson Shernee Tan-Tambut noted that it is equally important to include local officials in the decommissioning process.

She also said that the panel and the BARMM local officials would like to see the list of combatants to ensure that corruption would not happen in the BARMM region.

“We just want to make sure that the funds are going to where they should be. Remember, we are giving BARMM a PHP70-billion block grant annually,” she explained.

The special committee would resume discussions on the matter next month and invite the BARMM officials to further discuss the status of the peace process in BARMM. (PNA)