Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, the solution to the multi-faceted “Moro Problem”, says MILF Peace Panel Chair Mohagher M. Iqbal as he pays tribute and sends gratitude to the many international partners of the Mindanao peace process
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MANILA (SDN) — Negotiations between the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) took all of 17 years — 1997 to 2014 — and the interregnums marked by protracted major and minor shooting wars.
Suffice to say that after all the blood and gore, limbs and bodies torn apart, rivers of blood gone dry already, and a peace pact had been inked, such as the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), the two sides forged on March 27, 2014, implementation is a natural path for every peace process.
Now, as everyone would know, the implementation of a signed peace accord is easier said than done and, depending on whose presidential hands the responsibility lies, it can take a swift course, or a long winding path for many years. With a threat of a recurrence of violence always at the back of the peacemakers from both parties.
The then President Rodrigo R. Duterte started the CAB’s implementation in 2018 with the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) and now, the obligation and responsibility shifted in 2022 to the administration of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.
Do you think it is easy? Certainly, it is unlike going on a picnic
MILF Peace Implementing Panel Chair Mohagher M. Iqbal concedes that implementing a peace agreement is not easy.
“Contrary to what some people might think, implementing an agreement is not really like travelling a paved road or going into (a) picnic. It requires consistency as well as creativity and flexibility.”
Iqbal, who wears many hats in the now-dubbed Bangsamoro peace process, knows it too well. He has been and continues to lead the MILF in the GPH-MILF peace process, overseeing it as its peace panel chair or chief negotiator, as chair of the defunct Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC), the main defender in various congressional hearings in Congress’ two chambers, and in many other fora, as well as in the drafting of the ill-fated Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) and its successor the completed Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL).
In fact, because he has been the chief negotiator of the MILF for over 20 years, he already tendered his resignation. MILF Chair and Bangsamoro Chief Minister Ahod Balawag “Al-Haj Murad” Ebrahim quickly turned it down.
Iqbal led the MILF at the 35th GPH-MILF Peace Implementing Panels (PIP) Meeting on December 12, 2024, held in Ortigas Center, Pasig City.
It’s well to note that in every official gathering about the peace process the MILF PIP chair, now the education minister and a Member of Parliament (MP) of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), Iqbal has never failed to acknowledge the key role the international community played and continues to play in the peace process, starting with the GPH-Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).
Note also that the Mindanao peace process started with the then President Ferdinand E. Marcos, Sr., then to former Presidents Corazon C. Aquino, Fidel V. Ramos, Joseph Estrada, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Benigno S. Aquino III, Duterte, and now Marcos, Jr.
As it started with Marcos, Sr., the peace process has come full circle, as Marcos, Jr. is on whose hands the implementation of the CAB lies and, in effect, the GPH-MNLF’s 1996 Final Peace Agreement (FPA).
Would Marcos, Jr. be up to the task, would he waiver in the implementation, and risk new conflicts?
The MILF is upbeat, as far as what Iqbal has pointed out at the latest GPH-MILF PIP Meeting, acknowledging the importance of the decisive role of the Executive Department.
“I wish to convey my gratitude to the Honorable Secretary Carlito Galvez, Jr. for his unwavering dedication to the way of peace in resolving the conflict in the region; and more importantly, to His Excellency President Bongbong Marcos for his commitment to implement all agreements with the MILF (and MNLF) in many national and global gatherings.”
Earlier in his Opening Statement, the MILF PIP chair described the 35th Meeting as “another milestone”, apparently, referencing the GPH-MILF partnership’s many achievements.
“Today is another milestone in our continuing journey towards implementing the CAB, an agreement signed by the government of the Philippines and the MILF over a span of 17 long years of protracted, hard, and harsh negotiations.”
Iqbal also clarified (mis-) impressions that he was a “hardliner” in the negotiating table.
“Many described me as a hardliner. No, I am not. I am a negotiator and while I do not presume to be an expert on this field, but I have been chairing the MILF peace panel since 2003, something like 21 years already.”
He said that as the MILF negotiator for many years, he has learned about “giving and taking” and “taking and giving” as important facets in negotiations.
“Of course, one, not even a negotiator, can negotiate or compromise a principle. Principles will never ever be the subject of negotiation. But we can negotiate the ways and means or approaches to achieve the desired end.”
The MILF chief negotiator, PIP chair, head of the Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education (MBHTE), said “consistency” is required so as not to get lost in the labyrinthine maze of the peace process, and flexibility to avoid bumping into an immovable obstruction. (/)
The GPH-MILF peace process, he emphasized, has the sole agenda, resolving the “Moro Problem”, which he described as a “distorted appreciation of history.”
“After more than a decade, we finally found the key to solving this problem: the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB). Therefore, the faithful implementation of this agreement will solve this problem; and vice versa, a disjointed implementation will only create confusions, mistrust, and conflicts,” Iqbal says. (♡)