Featured image above shows former enemy warriors Defense Secretary Jose Calingasan Faustino, Jr., (right) and Bangsamoro Interim Chief Minister Ahod Balawag ‘Al-Hajj Murad Ebrahim’, in a lighthearted moment during their meeting at the DND in Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City, Metro Manila. Calingasan, a native of Itogon, Benguet, Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), Luzon, was a former Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) general who fought the MNLF and the MILF in the various stages of the internecine war in Southern Philippines. Ebrahim, a son of Maguindanao, Muslim Mindanao, is the chairman of the MILF. Now both in non-military roles, Calingasan and Ebrahim will continue the implementation of the 2014 CAB. (Image courtesy of MILG)
BARMM News
By EDD K. USMAN / Twittter: @edd1819 / Instagram: @bluestar0910 / Facebook: SDN — Science and Digital News
Short link: https://wp.me/paaccn-kH7
(SDN) — The Department of National Defense (DND) has assured protection for the gains of the Mindanao peace process.
Defense Secretary Jose C. Faustino, Jr., former general of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), gave the assurance in a meeting with the leadership of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
Faustino is one of the Cabinet secretaries that President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. appointed to his Official Family.
He met with Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) Interim Chief Minister Ahod Balawag “Al-Hajj Murad” Ebrahim during which they discussed a gamut of issues revolving around the Mindanao peace process, including political transition and the Normalization Track.
“Mindanao peace process” in a broad sense covers the peace negotiations the Philippine government (GPH) conducted with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and later the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
The GPH signed with the MNLF the 1976 Tripoli Agreement, the 1987 Jeddah Accord, and the 1996 Final Peace Agreement (FPA). With the MILF, the GPH inked the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), preceded by the Ceasefire Agreement of 1997, 2010 Declaration of Continuity of Negotiation, 2012 Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB), various 2013 pacts such as Annex on Transitional Modalities and Arrangements, Annex on Revenue Generation and Wealth Sharing, Annex on Power Sharing, and Annex on Normalization, Addendum on the Bangsamoro Waters and Zones of Joint Cooperation.
Ministry of the Interior and Local Government (MILG) Minister Naguib G. Sinarimbo, who joined the meeting, said Calingasan and MILF Chairman Ebrahim met and discussed the peace process. The MILF negotiation took 17 years before forging the CAB.
Also the spokesman of the BARMM, which is being governed by the BTA, Sinarimbo described the Friday, July 29, friendly face-off of the two leaders “a very fruitful meeting…where we discussed issues of political transition and Normalization Track of the GPH-MILF Peace Process.”
The head of the MILG, one of the primary ministries of the BARMM, cited the DND chief as expressing “full support to the BARMM and informed the Chief Minister that he gave instructions already to protect the gains of the peace process.”
“It was a sight to behold as former (enemy) warriors discussed a shared vision for peace and prosperity and reminisced the troubled years of the late ’90s and early 2000s.
“The war for the separation of Mindanao, that started with the MNLF in the 1970s resulted in the deaths of from 120,000 to 200,000 Filipinos (civilian, soldiers, and rebels), and the displacement of over 800,000 Mindanao sons and daughters, majority of them local Muslims.
For context, the MILF founded in 1977 and chaired by the late Ustadhz Salamat Hashim, waged war against the government seeking an independent Islamic State in Mindanao. In the end, both the MNLF and the MILF instead accepted an autonomy, with the latter able to achieve a strong autonomy, which is parliamentary in form within a republican national government.
In the year 2000 President Joseph Estrada Ejercito, who was later humiliated and convicted for plunder, declared all-out war against the MILF; in 2003, his successor, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared an all-out offensive versus the MILF.
In 1976 the Organization of Islamic Conference, now Cooperation, OIC, through its Quadripartite Committee, facilitated peace talks in Tripoli, Libya, hosted by Libyan Revolutionary Leader Moammar Qaddafy between the Philippine government and the MNLF under the leadership of Founding Chairman Nur P. Misuari. This led to the 1976 Tripoli Agreement, ultimately resulting to the 1987 Jeddah Accord and the September 2, 1996 FPA.
Just months in 1997 after the FPA’s signing, the administration of President Fidel V. Ramos initiated the peace negotiation with the MILF. The rest is history.
Fast forward to 2018. President Rodrigo R. Duterte signed Republic Act No. 11054, the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL), which he ably steered through the determined and strong help of his allies in both chambers of Congress. The BOL established BARMM, a new political entity (NPE), a major part of the implementation of the CAB.
It was part of his campaign promise in 2016 and he fulfilled it, making him the architect of the creation of the Bangsamoro region. The BARMM territory is composed of the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi, the cities of Cotabato, Lamitan, and Marawi, as well as the Special Geographic Area (SGA) made up of 63 barangays or villages in North Cotabato that opted to be under BARMM jurisdiction during the plebiscites in January and February 2019. North Cotabato itself is not part of the region.
The implementation of the 2014 CAB through the BOL has already achieved some milestones during Duterte’s administration, with former Secretary Carlito G. Galvez, Jr., head of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity (OPAPRU) , ably navigating the intricacies of the peace accord’s implementation in partnership with the MILF, its Peace Panel Chairman Mohagher Iqbal, now the head of the BARMM’s Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education (MBHTE).
Mechanisms for the CAB’s implementation are in place as the administration of Duterte’s successor, Marcos, Jr., buckles down to work to address the myriads of issues and concerns facing the country, including on peace and security.
But with the assurance from DND’s Calingasan of protecting the gains of peace, the Bangsamoro people, war-weary and ultra-tired from evacuating their homes and farms and other properties every time a shooting war occurred, no doubt welcome and appreciate the Benguet native’s fidelity to the Mindanao peace process. (/)