OZAMIZ CITY -- A non-government organization active in the Bangsamoro peace process offered consoling words to President Rodrigo Duterte, who said he was “at a loss” and felt “a bit pessimistic” about the prospects for peace with Moro rebels.
Speaking before police officers in Parang, Maguindanao on Friday, the president revealed that the supposed “squabbling” between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) have him worried that nothing can come out of the peace process.
“.. We ask the president to keep the flames of hope burning in our untiring search for peace,” said a statement issued by Balay Rehabilitation Center Inc., which has been working in the conflict-affected Bangsamoro communities for close to two decades now.
“Given the complex socio-political terrain his administration has to deal with, it is not surprising that quick results are hard to accomplish. We therefore sympathize with the president’s anxiety over the achievement of expected outcomes in the Bangsamoro peace process,” the group added.
During the campaign and even when he has assumed the presidency, Duterte promised to bring closure to the Moro rebellion by implementing the succession of agreements government forged with the MNLF and the MILF.
Under his peace and development roadmap, he sought to kick-start a process whereby the two Moro revolutionary groups could eventually unite behind a common Bangsamoro agenda. This same aspiration is also being pushed by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
The government forged the 1996 Final Peace Agreement with the MNLF and the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro with the MILF, a faction that split from the latter in 1977.
The Duterte administration is hopeful the effort to establish the Bangsamoro autonomous government to replace the current Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao could be one arena for the MNLF and MILF coming together.
Balay said Duterte’s recent despair could be viewed “as an indication … of his serious attention to the peace process, even to the extent of personally overseeing its twists and turns.”
“But let not this minor slack in the achievement of milestones be a cause for desperation. We know how hard the MILF and MNLF leaderships are working to race against time and meet the President’s self-imposed deadline of writing a draft Moro autonomy law featuring the ideals of the 1996 Final Peace Agreement and the 2017 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro,” Balay added.
Apart from preparing for Congressional enactment of a charter for Bangsamoro autonomy, groups and individuals are also working on how to synchronize the Moro agenda in the event the country’s Constitution is opened for changes to accommodate a shift to a federal form of government.
“These efforts are by no means easy. But we ask the leaderships of both the MNLF and MILF to see how they can further step up the pace of their work, if only to ease these worries,” Balay said.
“We call on the entire country to stand behind the government as it endeavor to achieve a negotiated political settlement with Maoist rebels and implement with earnest the Bangsamoro peace pacts,” it added.