Marcos urged to appoint gov’t peace panel head
COTABATO CITY—A peace advocacy group has called on the Marcos administration to appoint the chair of the Government of the Philippines-Peace Implementing Panel (GPH-PIP) to engage with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in the implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB).
Datu Tokz Bin Abdulrahman, spokesperson for the newly formed Move for Peace Now!, said the appointment of a GPH-PIP chair is necessary to sustain engagement with the MILF and advance the Bangsamoro peace process.
He said that without a government panel chair, the implementation of the CAB “hangs in the balance,” as MILF peace panel chair Mohagher Iqbal has no official counterpart to engage with.
‘Structural rupture’
“We want to protect the hard-earned peace. The gains of the peace process were achieved through decades of sacrifice and should not be put at risk,” Abdulrahman said in a phone interview.
The former GPH-PIP chair, retired military general Cesar Yano, tendered his resignation last February.
In an editorial, the MILF earlier also called on Marcos to appoint a new GPH-PIP chair following Yano’s departure.
“This is not an administrative vacancy. It is a structural rupture at the heart of the peace process. The MILF finds itself without a dialogue partner. The CAB, in practical terms, is in a state of suspension,” the group said.
In a statement dated March 12, the MILF declared the suspension of all substantive CAB peace process engagements on its part, citing the vacancy left by Yano’s resignation.
The GPH and the MILF signed the CAB in 2014 after 17 years of peace negotiations. The agreement paved the way for the creation of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in 2019 following the ratification of Republic Act No. 11054, or the Bangsamoro Organic Law.
Presidential Adviser on Peace, Unity and Reconciliation Secretary Mel Senen Sarmiento told reporters last week on the sidelines of a Bangsamoro stakeholders’ forum in Manila that the vetting process for the new GPH-PIP chair is ongoing.
He did not name any candidates but expressed hope that the selected official would accept the post.
At stake
Abdulrahman appealed to Malacañang to act on their call to appoint a GPH-PIP chair so the implementation of the CAB can proceed.
“What is at stake here is the Bangsamoro peace process and the peace agreement that we must continue to protect,” he said.
On Monday, the group staged a peaceful protest in Mendiola to air its concerns.
“Our only request is for the signed peace agreements to be implemented and respected. It is already there; we simply need to follow and implement what has been agreed upon,” he added.
Abdulrahman said the Bangsamoro peace process is no longer on track, referring to delays caused by the absence of a GPH-PIP chair.
In July last year, the MILF also suspended the decommissioning of its remaining 14,000 combatants until the government substantially complies with provisions under the CAB’s Annex on Normalization.
“It is hereby resolved that the decommissioning of the remaining 14,000 MILF combatants and 2,450 weapons shall commence only upon the substantial compliance of the GPH (Government of the Philippines) in the other tracks of normalization, including the provision of socio-economic packages as agreed upon by the GPH and MILF Peace Implementing Panels to the 26,145 combatants,” part of the MILF resolution signed by chair Al Haj Murad Ebrahim stated.
So far, a total of 26,145 MILF combatants have been decommissioned, or about 65 percent of the 40,000-strong MILF forces. —WITH A REPORT FROM BONG S. SARMIENTO
