MARGINALIA: Peace as a Duet, Not a Solo

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 20 August) — It was almost 10 years ago.

It has been almost 10 years since the first Titayan symposium-workshop was convened in April 2016, in the shadow of the Mamasapano debacle.

Back then, the focus was on a president whose power seemed to be dwindling in the more open democratic space and in the information age, when every domestic issue had global reverberations (or, the excuse for a lack of political will). That was the time when the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) was ultimately buried in Congress, undone by a mix of fear, fatigue, and fiery rhetoric amplified by social media.

I remember writing then that the executive’s shrinking power meant more voices, but also more noise, and that this diffusion of authority made peace harder to shepherd.

Ten years later, I found myself once again in a hall of peacebuilders, civil society leaders, negotiators, and public officials gathered at the Acacia Hotel in Davao City for Titayan 2: Bridging to Sustain Peace in the Bangsamoro.

This time, the narrative has shifted, but the challenge remains no less daunting.

As candidly pointed out in the opening session, we are now facing a president who seems to lack proper grasp of the actual state of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB). One former government negotiator described the problem starkly: the government’s unilateral implementation of the CAB is running contrary to the very spirit of the agreement. Mohagher Iqbal, Chair of the MILF Peace Implementing Panel, unapologetically underscored that the CAB was never meant to be a solo performance but a duet—mutually implemented, mutually honored, mutually kept.

In the usual rhythm of peace talks, the normalization and political tracks are the first to be highlighted. Yet as I listened from my seat, what struck me was what I could not quite find: any discernible movement on the constitutional track. For what would it mean, really, for the Bangsamoro peace agreements to endure beyond administrations, beyond moods of Malacañang, beyond the fragility of personalities?

It would mean their entrenchment in the 1987 Philippine Constitution, something envisioned in theory but elusive in practice.

The two-day programme of Titayan 2 was itself a bridge of sorts. Session by session, we were taken from the peace panels’ updates on the CAB, to civil society perspectives, to the Bangsamoro Transition Authority’s accomplishments and challenges from 2019 to 2025, and then to the looming first regional parliamentary elections in October 2025. The second day will be more sobering—civil society “pakighinabi” (conversation) on difficult topics, collective commitments, and the hope of sustaining peace beyond symbolic gestures.

Looking around the hall, I saw familiar faces, some grayer now, some more wrinkled, yet still carrying the fire of conviction. I also saw younger ones, inheritors of both our unfinished struggles and our fragile hopes. Titayan—bridge in the Danao languages, taytayan in Cebuano—remains an apt metaphor.

Bridges are never ends in themselves; they are always in-between, always leading somewhere, always inviting crossing.

Ten years ago, I worried about dwindling presidential power (or, a lack of political will). Today, I worry about unilateral power, exercised without regard for partnership. The CAB was born of mutuality, and it can only live through it.

As the sessions ended, I was reminded that bridges are not built to be admired from afar. They are meant to be crossed.

And unless both sides meet in the middle, the bridge we call peace will remain unfinished.

#BangsamoroPeace #Titayan2 #PeaceProcess #CABImplementation #SustainPeace

[MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Mansoor L. Limba, PhD in International Relations and Shari‘ah Counselor-at-Law (SCL), is a publisher-writer, university professor, vlogger, chess trainer, and translator (from Persian into English and Filipino) with tens of written and translation works to his credit on such subjects as international politics, history, political philosophy, intra-faith and interfaith relations, cultural heritage, Islamic finance, jurisprudence (fiqh), theology (‘ilm al-kalam), Qur’anic sciences and exegesis (tafsir), hadith, ethics, and mysticism. He can be reached at mlimba@diplomats.com and www.youtube.com/@WayfaringWithMansoor, and his books can be purchased at www.elzistyle.com and www.amazon.com/author/mansoorlimba.]