Fracturing an already fissured peace process (2)
Cotabato City—Several colleagues in my social development work here have debated endlessly about the rather depressing state of affairs in the heartland of the country’s only autonomous region. Some with a lot of passion have expressed in no uncertain terms how they have worked so hard on the sidelines and in the backdrop of all processes leading to the culmination of a long, drawn-out peace negotiation process between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Philippine government. And for a good reason.
The deep fissure within the top hierarchy of the MILF that started to surface even before the changes in the leadership and other members of the interim Parliament or the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) has now even become deeper. As I noted last week, the skillful moves initiated by regional and national interlocutors have resulted in the national government lending an authoritative stamp to the unilateral decisions in the choice of new BTA members, and in changing the top leadership of the region in early 2025.
In several social media posts, including an official declaration by the MILF, it is alleged that the Philippine government, through the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation, and Unity (Opapru), has deliberately scuttled the terms of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB).
In a statement delivered at a peace conference held in August 2025 in Davao City, Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) Minister of Education Mohagher Iqbal disclosed that the sources of conflict among the MILF leadership and the overall scuttling of the gains of the peace process have been driven by “unilateral” decision-making by the Philippine national government. Iqbal went on to name the Opapru secretary at that time to have played a major role in causing all these, in collusion with parties—both regional and national—allegedly wanting to dismantle the peace process architecture.
Iqbal chairs the MILF’s peace implementing panel. Signed by both the MILF and the Philippine government panels, the CAB specified several provisions giving the MILF hierarchy the authority to run the transition government that was formed in 2019, after the ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law.
Despite their relative inexperience in running a complicated bureaucracy like the BARMM, the MILF leadership was given the right to choose the fledgling region’s ministers, heads of agencies, and offices to carry out executive functions. They were also allowed to nominate at least 41 members of the interim Parliament or the BTA.
But to the huge disappointment of the MILF, President Marcos appointed only 34 new members of the BTA out of the 41 that the MILF recommended. Aside from this move, several former BTA members, closely aligned with the MILF leadership, were also replaced with people who were not on the MILF’s recommended list.
The decisions of the national government have led to the emasculation of the MILF; they no longer hold a majority membership in the BTA.
With a reduced number in the BTA as among its loyal members, the MILF’s United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP) no longer holds sway in BTA processes and procedures. One of the strongly criticized moves of the new leadership in the interim Parliament was the unceremonious removal of the former majority floor leader. This happened even without this being part of the official order of business (agenda) of the BTA. It resulted from a simple motion from one BTA member that the body should decide to choose a new majority floor leader. It turned out to be a coup to oust someone closely associated with the MILF’s UBJP from holding a key position in the BTA.
Moreover, there are now new actors in the region, who have already organized new political parties, aggressively creating schisms among the already divided groups in the region. While this can be an expression of a “vibrant democracy in action,” it can also hide dubious moves to further deepen fractures in the already fissured peace process architecture.
One new political group is called the Bangsamoro Federalist Party. Isn’t this an openly sycophantic expression of alignment with Mr. Marcos’ Partido Federal ng Pilipinas? Only the clueless will not see such an obvious connection.
The divisions in the regional political dynamics are too wide and too deep to patch up just before the conduct of the September 2026 first-ever parliamentary elections. And this might become a permanent wedge that will allow the return of traditional politicians to the regional political scene. Among these are individuals who have never shed a single drop of blood in the war of attrition to attain the Moro right to self-determination.
Without this war, the Philippine government-MILF protracted peace process would not have been realized.
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