DAVAO CITY — Amid “serious breaches” in the peace agreement, Bangsamoro and national multisectoral peace stakeholders urged President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to meet with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) leadership ahead of the first parliamentary elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) scheduled in September.

The peace advocates formulated the call to action in a summit held on July 1-3 in this city, “recognizing that there have been serious breaches of agreed commitments under the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), which have eroded trust and confidence among the peace parties and the broader peace constituencies.” 

“We urge the President to exercise direct political leadership by meeting with the leadership of the MILF, as the government’s main partner in the negotiation of the CAB, to restore mutual confidence, reaffirm the parties’ commitments, and restart the implementation process,” they said. 

They added that with the challenges to the peace process, they are appealing to the government, the MILF, and the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) to fully implement the CAB, revitalize joint peace mechanisms, institutionalize meaningful multisector participation, ensure peaceful and credible BARMM parliamentary elections, prevent political violence from undermining the peace process, and deliver tangible peace dividends to communities.

Nearly 200 participants representing Moro youth, women, non-indigenous peoples, civil society organizations, labor groups, and the academe joined the “Civil Society Summit: Strengthening Constituencies for the Peace Process” hosted by the Ateneo de Davao University. 

“We continue to believe in the promise of the peace agreement and remain committed to its success. At the same time, we express a shared concern that the greatest challenge confronting the peace process today is no longer the negotiation of peace, but the faithful, transparent, and accountable implementation of the commitments embodied in the CAB and the Bangsamoro Organic Law,” the peace advocates said, adding:

“We express concern that while these frameworks provide a clear foundation for peace and democratic governance, gaps in their implementation have weakened public confidence and delayed the realization of their intended benefits.”

Serious challenges

The summit participants said that 12 years after the signing of the CAB, some of the most serious challenges to the peace process include the government’s unilateral replacement of MILF Chair Al Haj Murad Ebrahim as interim chief minister of the BTA, the prolonged vacancy in the chairmanship of the government peace implementing panel, the suspension of the decommissioning process, slow progress in the normalization track, and questions over whether key peace mechanisms continue to function effectively and remain accessible to the communities they are intended to serve.

“Nanghihina ang loob ng mga tao sa (The people are discouraged by what has happened to the) peace process because there is a perception that the government is violating the peace agreement’s implementation,” Tirmjzy Abdullah, a faculty member of the Mindanao State University-Marawi, said at the summit. “When that happens, public sentiment shifts back toward calls for a more meaningful exercise of the Bangsamoro people’s right to self-determination.” 

Abdullah was particularly referring to the President’s decision last year to replace Ebrahim with Abdulraof Macacua as BARMM interim chief minister, as well as the long-delayed appointment of a chair for the government implementing panel. 

‘Internationally recognized model’

Mohagher Iqbal, MILF peace implementing panel chair and Bangsamoro Parliament member, together with fellow incumbent and former MPs from the MILF, met with the summit participants in a two-hour dialogue.

“The Bangsamoro peace process has become an internationally recognized model because it is anchored on one fundamental principle: that peace must be built jointly, implemented jointly, and sustained jointly,” Iqbal said.

He added: “The MILF remains fully committed to the peace.”  

Mel Sarmiento, the newly appointed presidential adviser on peace, reconciliation, and unity, held a “listening session” with select summit participants.

Sarmiento said Malacañang is expected to announce the new chair of the government peace implementing panel on July 15. He issued the assurance that he would relay to the President the extensive implications of the current dynamics in the Bangsamoro. 

Former peace secretary Teresita “Ging” Deles, reminded the summit participants that sustaining peace requires continued public engagement and vigilance. “Today perhaps the challenge before us is not merely to remember that dream. It is to finish the work. For peace remains an unfinished work. It must be continuously defended, continuously nurtured, relentlessly renewed,” she said.

It was during Deles’ tenure as peace adviser to the late President Benigno Aquino III that the government and the MILF signed the CAB in March 2014, ending decades of armed conflict that had claimed thousands of lives and inflicted profound economic hardship across Central Mindanao.

Deles said it is “so important” that those who believe in peace should themselves “step in and ensure that all parties will be faithful to the agreement.”

“That is the purpose of this summit,” said Josua Mata, secretary general of the Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa (Sentro).

Broad public participation 

For Gus Miclat, cofounder and executive director of the Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID), broad public participation remains essential to sustaining peace.

“Peace must first and foremost have a constituency,” Miclat said. “It must have people who will defend it when it is misunderstood, accompany it when it slows down, and demand accountability when commitments remain unfinished. After all, peace agreements have been forged in the people’s, in our, name.” 

Also present at the summit were Ireland’s Ambassador to the Philippines Emma Hickey; Livia Meisser, charge d’affaires of the Embassy of Switzerland; and Junya Inoue, deputy consul general of Japan.

The summit was convened by IID, Sentro, InciteGov, Tindig Pilipinas, the Institute for Autonomy and Governance, Balay Mindanaw Foundation Inc., Code-NGO, the Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society, the Gaston Z. Ortigas Peace Institute, the International Center for Innovation, Ideals, Kusog Mindanaw, the League of Bangsamoro Organizations, the Philippine Center for Islam and Democracy, and Women Engaged in Action on 1325, with support from the CEAP, PBSP, Phinma Foundation, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, The Asia Foundation, the United Nations Development Programme, the Australian Embassy, and the Embassy of Switzerland in the Philippines. CONTRIBUTED

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