MARGINALIA | The Measure of Peace

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 8 August 2026) – Every election promises a new beginning.

Well, at least according to the banners.

Judging from the posters one sees all over the region nowadays, things have changed. Drive through any of the towns in this Bangsamoro homeland and faces smile down on you: human-clay or bronzed ashen photographs smiling benevolently; slogans speak of hope, of unity and service, of change. But listen closely and underneath the campaign din there’s a different conversation happening. It is quieter. Less dramatic. Yet, perhaps, it is the more important one.

This week, while candidates asked for votes, I found myself paying attention to stories that never became campaign speeches.

There were former combatants still waiting for the peace process to reach their homes, not only their names on official lists; children whose welfare plans were being reviewed in government meetings; women learning how to strengthen small livelihoods; fisherfolk from Lanao del Sur harvesting over a thousand kilos of tilapia; youngsters coming together to figure out a parliamentary system that many of the people over 30 years in age can hardly grasp.

These stories appear disparate at first sight.

Yet they are not.

They answer a question we hardly ask: What does peace look like after the signing ceremonies are over?

Peace is for many of us the silence of guns.

Islam invites us to see it more deeply.

The Qur’an repeatedly links justice with peace. An end to fighting does not mean a society is at peace. Peace also comes when rights are protected, trusts are complied with and people regained the means to live a dignified life. It appears when public office becomes an amānah rather than a privilege. It appears when promises are honored.

That is why I read this week’s news with mixed feelings.

The Government and the MILF have resumed formal engagement. That is encouraging. Dialogue is always better than silence.

Yet, combatant decommissioning remains unfinished. Normalization still waits for commitments to be completed. The road toward peace continues, but not every traveler is moving at the same pace.

Meanwhile, the region prepares for its first regular parliamentary elections.

Security forces are being reinforced. Election officials are fighting misinformation. Civic groups are teaching voters how the parliamentary ballot works.

All these are necessary.

But a peaceful election is not the destination. It is simply the entrance.

Even after the campaign closes, and the posters disappear under the Mindanao sun, people will still wake up before dawn to work on rice fields, when it is time to board fishing boats, open market stalls, teach children in classrooms or line up at government offices.

They will ask questions to which no campaign jingle has an answer.

Has public service become easier to reach?

Are our children safer?

Can young people imagine a future without leaving home?

Can families feed themselves honestly and not through conflict, patronage or politics?

Perhaps these are the questions by which Allah measures a society: not how loudly it celebrates victory, but how faithfully it serves those entrusted to its care.

Wars can end through negotiation, and this has already been proven by the Bangsamoro.

The greater challenge now is quieter.

Can we prove that peace is able to improve ordinary life?

That, it seems to me, is the election that continues long after September’s ballots have been counted.

#Bangsamoro #BARMMElections2026 #BangsamoroPeaceProcess #BARMM

[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.]