No MILF breakup, just new political parties
COTABATO CITY—A former lawyer for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has downplayed speculations the erstwhile rebel group is breaking up after three political parties have emerged from among its ranks.
This came as regional political parties in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) rushed to beat the deadline on Tuesday to file petitions for registration and manifestation to participate in the parliamentary elections on Sept. 14 this year.
Among those which filed a petition was the Bangsamoro Federalist Party (BFP), which held its general assembly and convention in Davao City on April 2.
The Davao assembly elected as BFP president Member of Parliament (MP) Tomanda Antok who heads the general staff of the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF), the armed wing of the MILF that is set for decommissioning in keeping with its landmark peace deal with the government in 2014.
Other key BFP leaders include former BARMM Senior Minister Abunawas Maslamama, who used to be the BIAF spokesperson under the nom de guerre “Von Al-Haq,” and Toks Ebrahim, who used to head its ceasefire coordinating committee.
Different path
Because they are close associates of BARMM interim Chief Minister Abdulraof Macacua, who is the current BIAF chief, the latter is widely talked about to have caused the organizing of the BFP that would expectedly become his vehicle for vying for power in the region’s first elected parliament.
But MP Naguib Sinarimbo, a former lawyer for MILF, said all of the revolutionaries who joined a big bloc of local government leaders throughout the region in forming the BFP continue to recognize the leadership of Ahod “Al Haj Murad” Ebrahim as MILF chief.
In the community of Moro revolutionaries, the MILF chief is regarded as “amirul mujahideen,” or leader of the struggle.
Sinarimbo explained that the Moro revolutionaries have not strayed from the course of the struggle defined and carried out by the MILF, only that they seek to pursue it through a political party different from that of the MILF chief.
Ebrahim, who used to be BARMM interim chief minister, heads the MILF’s United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP).
Sinarimbo had provided legal services to the MILF peace negotiating panel, and helped form and run the UBJP as its deputy secretary general. But a leadership revamp over a year ago removed him and others from major UBJP positions.
Key powers were also stripped from the UBJP secretary general, and had these lodged with the party president, said Sinarimbo, BFP spokesperson and head of its chapter in Cotabato City.
The BFP said it was positioning as a unifying force. “The party underscores its commitment to unity, inclusivity, and convergence as central to its political agenda,” Antok said.
Anchored on the principles of federalism, the BFP advocates for a governance framework that ensures “genuine regional autonomy, equitable resource distribution, and empowered local leadership.”
The other party from the MILF ranks is Alliance of Bangsamoro Tri-People’s Party, mostly composed of civic personalities.
MP Suharto Ambolodto said the emergence of three parties from the MILF ranks could have fragmented the group’s forces but it somehow prevents a leadership implosion.
