Galvez calls for sobriety, dialogue amid ‘cracks’ within MILF
COTABATO CITY—Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez Jr. calls for sobriety amid reported cracks in the ranks of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) but did not say anything about perceived role of external forces in fostering these divisions.
Galvez instead called for dialogues among Mindanao peace stakeholders, almost echoing an earlier call made by civil society groups for the peace implementing panels of the government and the MILF to meet to sort where the problems lie.
He said he welcomed the concern raised by former government peace negotiators over the apparent divisions within the leadership of the MILF.
“We fully share their perspective that a fractured MILF leadership would serve no one’s interests,” Galvez said, reacting to a statement made by former government negotiating panel chair Miram Coronel Ferrer and four other panel members who worked on the forging of peace deal between the government and the former rebel group in 2014 that eventually led to the creation of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
“We call on all those who have accompanied the government and the MILF during the protracted negotiations to exert their moral influence on its leaders in the hope that they may overcome their rift for the sake of the broader interest of peace in the region,” Galvez said.
External actors
Earlier, the peace panel raised the concern that the division that was causing confusion in the ranks of the MILF was “not simply an internal matter among them,” hinting on “external actors” exacerbating these fractures.
“True there are cliques within any organization … but if there are external actors exacerbating these fractures and propping up one against the other, then the tensions are multiplied,” the panel’s statement issued on Sunday read.
It urged the government to help unite, not divide its peace partner.
Civil society groups in Mindanao earlier planned to accompany Cardinal Orlando Quevedo, the retired archbishop of Cotabato, who sought an audience with President Marcos to ease the tension developing between the former rebel group and the government counterpart over issues on decommissioning and the uneven implementation of the socioeconomic package of the normalization process.
