Hardly given media coverage was the position paper of the country’s Association of Generals and Flag Officers (AGFO), a decades-old organization of retired generals with star rank. Retired Lt. Gen. Edilberto Adan read out AGFO’s stand in a hearing of the Senate committee deliberating the Bangsamoro Basic Law.

The position paper’s introduction partly answers the question why the AGFO members’ views should be seriously considered by Congress: “Many of them are veterans of the campaigns against insurgency and terrorism in Mindanao. As veterans, we experienced the scourge and cruelties of war, its physical, mental and psychological demands.”