OZAMIZ CITY —- A week into the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, the engines of the Bangsamoro peace process are starting to rev up albeit in a low-key and informal way.
This was revealed in Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Chair Murad Ebrahim’s Eid’l Fitr message to the Bangsamoro people last Wednesday which also detailed the group’s efforts to keep the peace process with government going given a change in the country’s political leadership.
Murad said the MILF’s effort for a “back-channeling engagement” with the Duterte presidency started when he was declared to have won the presidential race.
In its congratulatory message on Duterte’s victory, the MILF cited that for the first time in the country’s history, “a true son of Mindanao in whose veins Moro blood runs” is taking over the helm of political power.
It also noted the “high optimism” among the Moro people that the injustices committed against them will finally end with the full implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) which was signed on March 27, 2014.
Murad disclosed that the MILF central committee composed a group to initially engage with Duterte’s staff, leading to the “one-on-one meeting” between the two leaders in Davao City last June 17.
Murad said that during the meeting, he “had very substantive discussions towards the way forward in the search for peace and in addressing the Bangsamoro Question.”
“We are now working for the continuation of that back-channeling discussions until we will be able to start the formal engagement thru the established structure of the peace process. We have already agreed on another back-channeling schedule next week, Insha Allah,” Murad added.
He, however, did not say whether the next round of discussions will still involve him and Duterte or will already be among peace functionaries from both the MILF and government.
Just like in the peace process with Maoist rebels, efforts were underway even before Duterte formally came into power. Only that with the Bangsamoro peace process, Duterte has yet to compose the peace panel to deal with the MILF.
In his inaugural address last June 30, Duterte vowed to “implement all signed peace agreements in step with constitutional and legal reforms.”
Apart from batting for continuity in the peace efforts, presidential adviser on the peace process Jesus Dureza earlier said the Duterte administration will also seek for convergence of the respective peacemaking initiatives with the MILF and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).
Prior to Duterte’s one-on-one conversation with Murad, both were part of a meeting that included the MNLF faction headed by Abul Khayr Alonto who vowed to support the president’s planned, push for a federal form of government as it will be an opportunity to entrench into the country’s charter the negotiated formula for addressing Moro self-determination.
Almost two weeks after, Murad forged an understanding with former Cotabato City mayor Muslimin Sema for them to work on harmonizing the peace tracks their respective groups have with government. Sema heads another MNLF faction called the Council of 15.
Presumably aware of these developments, Duterte, in his inaugural speech, said he was “elated by the expression of unity among our Moro brothers and leaders, and the response of everyone else to my call for peace.”
The MNLF forged the Final Peace Agreement (FPA) with the MNLF in 1996 and its various factions have claimed that several aspects of the pact were not substantially carried out up to now.
Last January, at the conclusion of the Tripartite Review Process on FPA implementation, the parties acknowledged the opportunity for harmonizing the two peace pacts under the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) which was shelved by the 16th Congress.
The review process is done under the support of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) which also underpins the Bangsamoro Coordination Forum ((BCF), a mechanism to bring the MILF and MNLF into a common agenda in behalf of the Moro people.