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By EDD K. USMAN | Twitter: @edd1819 | Instagram: @bluestar0910 | Facebook: SDN — SciTech and Digital News
COTABATO CITY, 9th February 2023 (SDN) — The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which is governing since 2019 the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), on Wednesday, has expressed solidarity with Türkiye and Syria and their people.
BARMM Education Minister Mohagher M. Iqbal, chairman of the MILF Peace Implementing Panel, issued a statement today, Wednesday, following the massive magnitude 7.8 earthquake that killed thousands of people (including in war-torn Syria). Türkiye also has thousands of buildings destroyed.
“On behalf of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Peace Implementing Panel, I want to extend my deepest condolences and sincere consolation to the government and people of Türkiye and Syria after the destructive impact of Monday’s (06 February 2023) series of earthquakes,” Iqbal, head of the Bangsamoro Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education (MBHTE).
The MILF and BARMM official noted that Türkiye is one of the key partners in the Mindanao peace process between the Philippine government (GPH) and the MILF, which produced the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB). Türkiye is an active participant in GPH-MILF peace process mechanisms such as the Third-Party Monitoring Team and the International Contact Group (ICG).
Iqbal emphasized that “our thoughts are with the families and communities who lost loved ones and friends to this calamity. We also pray for the full recovery of the injured and strength for those involved in search and rescue efforts to reach more survivors.”
“We are in solidarity with the Türkiye and Syrian governments, the people”
Türkiye chairs the Independent Decommissioning Body (IDB) that oversees the decommissioning of MILF combatants. Furthermore, Türkiye has existing collaboration in the Bangsamoro in education, trade, peace and development through its government and non-government organizations, said Iqbal.
He continued that “Türkiye and Syria are members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which continues to support the Bangsamoro peace process. Once again, we are in solidarity with the Türkiye and Syrian governments, the people and all those affected and offer our support and prayers in this difficult time.”
MILF Chairman Al-Hajj Murad Ebrahim is top official of the BARMM as its Chief Minister. The MILF has until June 30, 2025, to govern and run the Bangsamoro region in a transition mode.
The Bangsamoro region, established in 2018 by the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) to implement the CAB, is made up of the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi, the cities of Cotabato, Lamitan, and Marawi, as well as the 63 barangays or villages dubbed Special Geographic Area (SGA) that voted “yes” in a plebiscite in February 2019 to be under the BARMM jurisdiction.
According to the Philippine Atlas has 4,404,288 people. It has 116 municipalities: Basilan, 11 municipalities; Lanao del Sur, 39; Maguindanao, 36; Sulu, 19; and Tawi-Tawi, 11. Its component cities are Cotabato (the regional center and capital) in Maguindanao; Lamitan in Basilan; and Marawi in Lanao del Sur. (✓)