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- EDD K. USMAN | X (Twitter): @edd181 | Instagram: @bluestar0910 |Facebook: SDN – SciTech & Digital News
COTABATO CITY, January 26, 2025 (SDN) — Queenie Padilla, daughter of Sen. Robin “Abdulaziz” Padilla, on Saturday, January 24, endorsed a nationwide showing of the film titled “Transition”, which speaks of the Bangsamoro peace process.
Queenie was at the premiere showing of the “cinematic” rendition of the peace process, only her second time to visit Muslim Mindanao. She told SDN — SciTech & Digital News the first time she was here was when she was only 15 years old, helping her father’s foundation pack and distribute humanitarian assistance for orphans in Mindanao.
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Queenie said she looked forward to seeing the results of the journey to peace and economic progress of the Bangsamoro region and anxious to meet with the people.
She said was glad to come on the invitation of the Bangsamoro Information Office (BIO), the media unit of the OCM, the Office of the Chief Minister (Al-Haj Murad Ebrahim). The head of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), Ebrahim is chair of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
The BIO described the film documentary as “An Inside Look at the Bangsamoro Peace Process” which the agency planned and produced and featured “the phases and key milestones of the Bangsamoro peace process for the past six years as the transition period nears its end.”
For context on the term “end”, the “transition” from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) to the BARMM started in January 2019, a three-year period until 2022, but then-President Rodrigo R. Duterte approved its extension for another three years until June 30, 2025.
The transition is on its sixth and final year, unless the first parliamentary polls in the BARMM are postponed and re-set for the second time, as both chambers of Congress are seeking through a legislative measure.
(SDN) learned that the Senate will be holding on Monday, January 27, a hearing on the proposed re-setting of the parliamentary regional political exercise.)
A total of 80 members of the parliament (MPs) under the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) are currently serving through presidential appointments. The Bangsamoro solons will be elected as regular members in the regional political exercise synchronized with the National and Local Elections (NLE) on May 12, 2025.
BIO Director Ameen Andrew Alonto said the idea about making the film was already at the back of his mind when he got the appointment to the then Bureau of Public Information (BPI), the forerunner of the BIO, during the now-defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
“We have been planning this for a long time. Some of you may remember that at the outset of my stint with the BPI (which became the BIO), one of the projects I wanted to do was this film,” Alonto said at the dinner at Pagana Restaurant here, a treat to his 60 people at the BIO.
The BIO chief spoke about the “stake in the overall narrative” of the Bangsamoro peace process and render it through a visual storytelling, giving it more life. He described the process of making the film as “a sense of fulfilment” as he thanked graciously his people for helping make “Transition” a reality.
Queenie (Mishael Khadijah) thanked Alonto and the BIO for having her on a three-day visit to the BARMM capital.
Queenie Padilla emotional after watching “Transition” film documentary
“I am so grateful that I came here, Wallahi (I swear to Allah), after watching the movie on the (MILF peace process) … I became so emotional. I made a dua (supplication) that this movie will be screened nationwide because it is educational, and I think the Filipino youth need to be educated on the history (of the peace process) and see the progress and improvement and, in sha Allah (God willing), will continue in the future,” she says.
“I am so grateful and very, very happy to be here,” Queenie adds, emphasizing, “I am a part of you.” The film, she said, presents hope for the region.
The showing of the film documentary was one of the highlights of the 6th Foundation Day celebration — January 20-24 — of the establishment of the BARMM which revolved around the theme: “SALAMAT BARMM: Pagpupugay sa Anim na Taong Paglilingkod sa Bangsamoro” (Thank You, BARMM: Celebrating Six Years of Serving the Bangsamoro).
Principal talking heads in the film documentary included Ebrahim; BARMM Education Minister Mohagher M. Iqbal, MILF chief negotiator and chair of its Peace Implementing Panel, Presidential Peace Adviser Secretary Carlito G. Galvez, Jr.; Prof. Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, former chief negotiator of the Government of the Philippines (GPH) peace panel; Lawyer Nabil Tan, an MP of the BTA; lawyer Omar Yasser C. Sema, another BTA MP, and others.
Ebrahim, the BARMM chief minister assured the region’s population of serving “the Bangsamoro with pure hearts and sincere intention.”
Recall that Iqbal and Coronel-Ferrer were the main characters towards the conclusion of the GPH-MILF peace process, as they signed on March 27, 2024, in Manila the historic Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB).
In a BIO interview with Iqbal, he sounded optimistic on achieving peace nationwide through the CAB.
“I think we can arrive at a situation wherein there would be peace and tranquility, not only in Mindanao, but the entire Philippines,” he says.
With Queenie in her visit to the BARMM were her aunt, Maria Teresa Ciocion, Maria Theresa Reynol Sakkalahul, R.N., and this pen pusher.
The Bangsamoro region, established in 2018 by the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) to implement the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), is made up of the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, and Tawi-Tawi, the cities of Cotabato, Lamitan, and Marawi, as well as the Special Geographic Area’s (SGA) 63 barangays or villages that voted “Yes” in a plebiscite in February 2019 to be under the BARMM jurisdiction. With the recent plebiscite at SGA, the BARMM now has eight new municipalities as residents voted “Yes”.
According to the Philippine Atlas BARMM has 4,404,288 people. It has 116 municipalities (plus eight newly established under the SGA: Basilan, 11 municipalities; Lanao del Sur, 39; undivided 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. (✓)