Think tank urges government, MILF to rebuild trust
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 10 March) – The International Crisis Group (ICG), a global think tank, is urging the Philippine government and the former rebel group Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to rebuild trust in order to bolster the Bangsamoro peace process.
In a report released on Tuesday entitled “Peace in the Philippines: The Bangsamoro’s Moment of Truth,” it called on the peace panels of both the government and the MILF to urgently meet again to temper the growing distrust between the two parties.
“Manila and the ex-rebels urgently need to rebuild trust… Manila and the Bangsamoro authorities should urgently take steps to ensure that the peace process does not sputter,” it said.
ICG released its report barely three weeks before the 12th anniversary of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), which the government and the MILF signed on March 27, 2014 after 17 years of peace negotiations.
The CAB paved the way for the establishment of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), which was created in early 2019 following the ratification of its enabling law, Republic 11054 or the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL).
The Bangsamoro region is governed by the 80-member Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), which under the BOL, must be led by the MILF with 41 seats and the rest by government nominees.
Georgi Engelbrecht, the think tank’s senior analyst on the Philippines, noted that the 2014 Bangsamoro peace accord “remains one of the rare negotiated settlements of the past decade worldwide that has not unraveled.”
But at this juncture, both tracks of the peace agreement face formidable hurdles, he pointed out.
“On the political side, parliamentary elections have been repeatedly deferred, creating uncertainty and fueling political divisions. It is imperative that they take place at the earliest to prevent extending the current limbo. Meanwhile, the normalization process has stalled. Getting it back on track will require greater sincerity and effort from both the Philippine government and the MILF,” he said in a statement.
Engelbrecht noted that “Manila bears a particular responsibility to safeguard the peace,” especially after its intervention last year to replace the BARMM leadership, referring to the incumbent Chief Minister Abdulraof Macacua, chief of the MILF’s military unit, who replaced MILF chair Ahod “Al Haj Murad” Ebrahim.
The MILF Central Committee had assailed the appointment of Macacua.
“The peace process is not at risk of collapsing tomorrow, but it is evident that the risks are piling up,” he said.
In its report, the ICG stated that while the role of third parties with a confidence-building mandate has diminished over time, they could still help in supporting dialogue between the government and the MILF.
The think tank was apparently referring to the International Contact Group and the TPMT or the Third Party Monitoring Team. The International Contact Group is a formal hybrid peace process mediation support mechanism consisting of foreign states and international non-government organizations while the TPMT is mandated to monitor, review and assess the implementation of the CAB.
“The promise of the Bangsamoro peace process has not yet dimmed, but missteps at this late juncture could still fuel a resurgence of fighting,” the ICG report stressed.
In an editorial late last month on luwaran.com, the MILF’s website, the front stated that the Bangsamoro peace process is in “limbo.”
The MILF pointed out that the reported resignation of GPH Peace Implementing Panel (PIP) chair Cesar Yano “is a structural rupture at the heart of the peace process.”
So far, the government has not responded to the assertion of the MILF that the Bangsamoro peace process is in limbo.
Earlier, another think tank, the Cotabato City-based Institute for Autonomy and Governance (IAG) and peace watchdog Climate Conflict Action (CCA) issued a joint statement warning that the Bangsamoro peace process “is on the brink of collapse.”
“Trust is rapidly eroding between and among the Parties. Hope is under siege by betrayal from both sides,” the joint statement issued Wednesday stated.
In August last year, the independent TPMT also expressed grave concern on the Bangsamoro peace process in Mindanao, which it stressed “has reached a perilous juncture.”
The foreign-led TPMT sounded the alarm even as it noted that the Bangsamoro peace process “has fundamentally transformed” the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
“The TPMT notes with grave concern that the Bangsamoro peace process has reached a perilous juncture. Trust among the parties is at an all-time low since [the] signature of the CAB,” it said in a statement. (Bong S. Sarmiento / MindaNews)
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