BBM Tigers President Abel Macarimpas Lauds President Marcos, Jr.’s Embrace of and Support for BARMM, MILF Leadership

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• EDD K. USMAN | Twitter: @edd1819 | Instagram: @bluestar0910 | Facebook: SDN — SciTech and Digital News

COTABATO CITY (SDN) — President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.’s embracing and supporting the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) have Muslims strongly welcoming and appreciating the presidential vote of confidence.

The President’s statements of support he voiced out in various occasions served to allay the apprehension and fears of the Bangsamoro people, not the least the hierarchy of the BARMM government.

Their fears emanated from the endorsement the BARMM leadership headed by Chief Minister Ahod Balawag “Al-Haj Murad” Ebrahim gave Liberal Party presidential bet former Vice President Leni Robredo during the May 9, 2022, presidential elections.

Marcos, however, proved them wrong. There was nothing to fear, it turned out. Vendetta was not in his mind as borne by his subsequent conciliatory and highly supportive statements and acts toward the BARMM.

In connection with this, Brotherhood of Brave Maharlikan (BBM) Tigers President Abdullah “Abel” S. Macarimpas, A-Haj, has lauded Marcos  for his embrace and support for the BARMM and its leadership.

“We welcome and strongly commend His Excellency President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. for his statemship, embracing and supporting the Mindanao peace process and the BARMM and its population. Let every Muslim rally behind the President for he deserves all the support and well wishes he can get,” Macarimpas, former administrative and financial service director at the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF),” said in a statement he shared with SDN – SciTech & Digital News.

He called on his compatriots to contribute in their own way, big or small, in nation building, adding a peaceful and progressive Bangsamoro region will redound to every Filipino’s welfare.

It can be recalled that in the runup to the May 9, 2022, presidential elections, Moro leaders had expressed apprehension, nay, fears, that if then presidential candidate Marcos wins he might unleash a torrent of vendetta against the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). In essence, against Muslim Filipinos.

And another war, again pitting Filipino against Filipino with rivers of blood flooding parts of Central Mindanao, could scuttle the gains of the Mindanao peace process.

Remember that the MNLF under the leadership of its founding chairman, Prof. Nur P. Misuari had waged an independence rebellion against the Philippine government during President Marcos, Sr.’s regime.

After the Government of the Philippines (GPH) signed a peace accord with the MNLF after four years of negotiations brokered by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and facilitated by Indonesia ending with the 1996 Final Peace Agreement (FPA), the MILF led by its founding chairman Ustadhz Salamat Hashim, continued the Moro people’s revolutionary struggle for a separate Muslim state.

The MILF episode spanned the presidency of the then Presidents Fidel V. Ramos, the disgraced Joseph Estrada, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Benigno S. Aquino III, and Rodrigo R. Duterte.

To make a long story short, both the MNLF and the MILF which at the time were already losing support from Muslim and Arab countries, agreed to scale down their independence aspirations to autonomy.

Reciprocating Marcos support for BARMM

In the MILF’s case, it signed the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) on March 27, 2014, after 17 years of protracted peace negotiations characterized by major and minor wars and skirmishes.

Observers assumed that foreign Muslim and Arab governments, after some of then poured funds and arms to the Moro revolutionary organizations during the peak of the Mindanao war, withdrew support to the MNLF and the MILF, apparently fearing that they would encourage independence movements in their own backyard.

During the 2022 presidential polls the BARMM leadership under Ebrahim, chair of the MILF, formally endorsed Robredo. The BARMM/MILF support for her added to the Moro people’s apprehension and fears of a Marcos vendetta. It did not come to pass.

Instead, the Marcos scion after a massive electoral triumph over Robredo assured the BARMM leadership and the Moro people of his support. The Bangsamoro government is being run by the MILF through the Bangsamoro Transition Government (BTA) from January 21, 2019, to May 2025 — barring another extension, which seems unlikely. At the moment.

The biggest sign of the President’s support for the BARMM shone bright when he re-appointed Ebrahim as Bangsamoro chief minister after winning the presidency.

Marcos’s predecessor, Duterte of Mindanao, appointed the MILF chieftain to head the BTA in 2019, its pioneer chief minister, though in interim capacity.

Marcos also urged the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to support the peace process in the Bangsamoro region. He made the statements in his inaugural visit to the BARMM in September 2022, around five months of his presidential win.

“I think the role of the military is to support the peace, that is the peace process, that is what the peace process is now, and that is what we need to support now,” the President told soldiers of the Philippine Army’s (PA) 6th Infantry Division stationed at Camp Siongco, Awang Airport, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte, BARMM.

He said he was looking forward to a period of durable peace and progress in the region.

Macarimpas emphasized that reciprocating the President’s supportive acts is the right thing to do. (✓)