Groups: Bangsamoro peace process in peril
COTABATO CITY – Two major nongovernment organizations involved in monitoring peace and conflict situations in Mindanao have warned of the possible collapse of the Bangsamoro peace process if lingering issues are not addressed promptly and fully.
In a joint statement titled “Reclaiming the Promise of Peace” released on Wednesday, Climate Conflict Action (CCA) and the Institute for Autonomy and Governance (IAG) noted the “rapidly eroding” trust between the national government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which, with Malaysian facilitation, forged the landmark Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) on March 27, 2014, nearly 12 years ago.
About 10 years into its implementation, the Bangsamoro peace process was hailed globally for its longevity, having sustained the commitment of former combatants under a political settlement aimed at charting a post-conflict future.
A key achievement of the process is the establishment of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), which is imbued with far greater self-governance powers than its predecessor, showcasing the strength of the parties’ partnership.
But today, “hope is under siege by betrayals from both sides,” CCA and IAG said.
‘Internal fractures’
They cited “internal fractures” among MILF core members and deepening tensions among its armed combatants.
“Cracks are appearing at the peace implementation table, where government representatives sit across from their MILF counterparts. Cooperation is dissolving into confrontation, as the gains of the past decade disintegrate before the eyes of the agreement’s authors and ardent promoters,” the groups said.
They added that relations between the parties have worsened as BARMM communities have faced security challenges since last year due to “expanding horizontal conflict, including clashes between rival armed groups within the MILF, and the resurgence of violent extremism.”
“We traced the rise in violence to the stalled decommissioning process, the large and growing number of illicit weapons in circulation, political transition gridlock, and the inability and unwillingness of both parties to acknowledge the structural and institutional flaws in the peace agreement and the fragile peace infrastructure bound to it,” the groups said.
The MILF halted the final phase of the decommissioning process under the CAB, which was supposed to “put beyond use” the weapons of about 14,000 former combatants.
Because of this, CCA and IAG said normalization efforts in once war-torn communities have remained “in a vegetative state for over a year, and the decommissioning of combatants and their weapons is effectively comatose.”
This, they said, contributed to “the dismal normalization record” that allowed new and increasingly sophisticated weapons to flow into the Bangsamoro region.
Attack
They cited the daring attack last month on Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao del Sur Mayor Akmad Ampatuan, in which suspects allegedly used a rocket-propelled grenade — a crew-served weapon that should have been among the first turned in under the decommissioning process.
According to the groups, the parties should identify and engage “highly credible mediators who can speak the truth to both sides of the implementing panel and the heads of the multiple parties in the process.”
“The first step is that they engage in dialogue. What we are seeing is a lack of meaningful communication within and among the parties,” lawyer Benedicto Bacani, IAG executive director, told the Inquirer.
On Thursday, the MILF, in a strongly worded editorial published on its official website, warned that the Bangsamoro peace process has entered a state of “limbo” following the resignation of its peace implementing panel chair, which “does not merely delay dialogue — it makes dialogue impossible.”
******
Get real-time news updates: inqnews.net/inqviber
