A 20-man team from Malaysia who will oversee the implementation of the ceasefire agreement between the government and the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) will arrive in Cotabato City on Sunday.
The Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) said the Malaysian members of the International Monitoring Team (IMT) will fly directly from Malaysia aboard a C-130 Hercules aircraft.
Maj. Gen. Datuk Baharom Bin Hamzah of the Malaysian Armed Forces is the incoming head of mission of the IMT.
The Malaysian-led IMT is composed of 60 personnel that will come from Brunei, Libya, and Japan. They will have a one-year renewable mandate.
The truce monitors left in 2007 after peace talks bogged down when both sides failed to sign an expanded Muslim homeland agreement that was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
Also invited to be part of the expanded IMT were the European Union, Qatar, Indonesia, and Norway. There is no formal response yet on whether or not they will join the monitoring team.
The government will host a welcome ceremony for the arriving Malaysian IMT at Estosan Hotel in Cotabato City. (PIA-Bohol)
