Featured image shows MILF Founder/Chairman Ustadhz Salamat Hashim (2nd, right), Libyan Ambassador Salem Adam (2nd, left) and two others as they partake of ‘adobong manok’ the MILF head prepared and cooked. Exclusive SDN photo captured on Sept. 11, 2001, at his residence in Camp Rajamuda, Buliok Complex, North Cotabato.

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MANILA, February 17, 2026 (SDN) — There’s nothing like a whiff of fresh breeze cooling down a heated and intense atmosphere, a threat to unity and brotherhood in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

And the soft, gentle breeze came in the form of a much-appreciated and timely statement that MILF Chairman and United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP) President Al-Haj Murad Ebrahim has blown.

For much of 2025, the Year of the Snake, and the first weeks of 2026, the Year of the Fire Horse, tension has been brewing over BARMM leadership, and spilling over to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) after President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. did not appoint seven of the Front’s 41 nominees to the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) Parliament. The issue has become a torn and of the factors affecting the implementation of the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB).

Remember, the MILF Central Committee already suspended the implementation of the CAB’s decommissioning aspect, a key step in normalizing war-weary, grizzled former combatants, and giving them a chance to re-invent their lives in mainstream society. And still is, the suspension, that is.

As lawyer Camilo “Bong” Montesa, a veteran of the Mindanao peace process, and Datu Lowell Macabangen, an emerging opinion maker, both with incisive analysis of Bangsamoro affairs, spoke about on social media, the President’s action is a cause for concern that is eating up unity and brotherhood among Bangsamoro/MILF leaders.

Problem is on 7 replacements of MILF nominees

Not that there’s already a full-blown squabble, but the atmosphere was threatening to continue heating up like an oven, whether the Moro people know how to make “pan de sal” or not, as one senator derisively commented once upon a time.

Perhaps, observers from within and without the Bangsamoro region have spoken too early about the issue’s impact on unity and brotherhood, for a statesman among them has apparently saved the day.

“Brother Sammy is still MILF, there’s no problem with his appointment as chief minister. The only problem is the appointment of the MPs endorsed by the MILF Central Committee which is 41. Brother Sammy is among the 41 and 0nly 34 MPs (were) appointed from the 41,” Ebrahim, successor to Ustadhz Salamat Hashim, the late founder and chairman of the Front, assures.

Of course, “Brother Sammy” is the MILF chief of staff, whom Marcos appointed, replacing Ebrahim as interim chief minister of the BTA on March 3, 2025. “MP” stands for member of the Parliament.

As an organization, Ebrahim, chair of the Front’s Central Committee, its highest policy making body, asserted the MILF was not opposed to his successor’s appointment, but the process, particularly on replacing seven nominees of the Front.

He made this vital clarification at the General Assembly, culmination of a series of provincial gatherings, of the MILF on Monday, February 16, at Camp Darapanan Gymnasium, Crossing Simuay, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao del Norte.

The MILF this month had conducted assemblies in Basilan province in Al-Barka Municipality; in the Ranaw Region, MILF Satellite Office, Sandab, Butig, Lanao del Sur, on February 12; Maguindanao del Norte and Cotabato City on February 14; and Maguindanao del Sur and Special Geographic Area (SGA) on February 15.

The number “41” refers to the Bangsamoro Organic Law’s (BOL) provision that of the 80 Parliament members, the MILF shall be the majority, with nominees of the Philippine Government (GPH) the minority at 39. However, when the President appointed the latest batch of the MPs, he left out seven of the 41 MILF nominees, creating disgruntled members of the Moro Front. And the question on the appointment of the MPs has been a constant torn ever since.

Ramadhan serves to cool down simmering tension

To make the story short, the issue boiled over. Supporters of the Moro Front — Saiden Abdulwahab and Zacaria Tuan with their legal counsel Badrodin Mangindra, and a host of others bearing placards, filed a petition at the Supreme Court asking for the nullification of the appointments of the seven MPs that replaced the MILF nominees.

Their objective, according to the petitioner, is to preserve the BOL provision that the transition phase of the Bangsamoro governance now on its seventh year should be “MILF-led”.

Trouble is the petitioners included Macacua, also the secretary general of the UBJP, the MILF’s political wing. They also included the Parliament Speaker Mohammad S. Yacob. Both are in the 41 MILF nominees.

The petition also named Executive Secretary Ralph Recto as respondent. It was Lucas P. Bersamin, former Supreme Court chief justice, as the executive secretary of the Marcos administration when the appointments were made.

But as MILF Chairman Ebrahim assured, his successor’s appointment is not a problem with the MILF of which Macacua is still the highest ranking military officer.

The petitioners questioned the appointment of the seven MPs, saying, “The President in appointing members of the BTA in lieu of those endorsed by the MILF Central Committee [contravened] the constitutionally guaranteed autonomy [of the BARMM governance]. By doing so, the appointing authority took it upon itself to define who represents the MILF, disregarding the recognized role of the [front’s] Central Committee in designating leadership for the transition, thereby eroding the principle of autonomy enshrined in the Bangsamoro Organic Law.”

Abdulwahab and Tuan’s urgent petition for certiorari and mandamus has raised the temperature in the BARMM as Macacua warned of a changes in his Cabinet unless Bangsamoro officials tow the line of his administration.

In a statement he posted on his social media page, the interim chief minister said he would initiate a formal probe to dig deep on who are the persons behind the petition, the financiers and brains, and those who benefited from what he called a “sabotage”, and a “divisive act”.

“Those found responsible will be held to account to the full extent of the law. We will pursue all appropriate legal remedies — administrative, civil and criminal cases will be filed,” Macacua warned.

Good thing is Islam’s holiest month, Ramadhan, has arrived and, apparently, somewhat cooled down the chief minister. He said he will act after “buka”, which is Eid’l Fire, the Festival of Breaking Fast, a month from today.

More importantly, cooler heads in the BARMM and the MILF may, hopefully, be able to navigate the tension and bring the temperature down.

And spare the Bangsamoro people from the fallout of any leadership squabble. — EDD K. USMAN (®)

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The author

EDD, a native of Sub-Saharan Africa Buluan/Datu Piang, Maguindanao del Sur, BARMM, college at UST, is a Manila-based journalist for over 40 years (33 years with Manila Bulletin), has five Media Awards (1 with University of the Philippines (UP) 2017 Science Journalism Award), covered and traveled over 40 times abroad), has contributed to Rappler, Business Mirror, Manila Business Insights, Panorama Magazine, Agriculture Magazine, and others, former Manila-based Foreign Correspondent of Saudi Arabia newspapers Saudi Gazette and Riyadh Daily, and The Peninsula (Qatar newspaper), with 2008 East-West Center (EWC) Journalism Seminar in the United States, 2000 Executive IT Seminar in Seoul, South Korea, with three Silver Awards in Photography, writes Muslim and Current Affairs, Enterprise, Science, Tech, Products Launch, and virtually everything under Heaven. (®)