4 BARMM governors slam MILF, call for full decommissioning

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Four provincial governors in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) called for the immediate decommissioning of all Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) forces and the postponement of the barangay elections in the region until the process is completed.

The appeal, signed by governors Mariam Sangki-Mangudadatu of Maguindanao del Sur, Abdusakur Tan of Sulu, Hadjiman Hataman-Salliman of Basilan, and Yshmael Sali of Tawi-Tawi, was submitted to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Thursday, February 23.

The move of the governors made the ongoing challenges faced by the BARMM in ensuring peace and security more pronounced, and gave a glimpse of the political dynamics between the provincial and regional officials.

The governors’ appeal cited three pressing security concerns in the Muslim-majority region now led by key people in the MILF.

The first was a call for a swift investigation and prosecution of the perpetrators of the February 17 ambush of Lanao del Sur Governor Mamintal Adiong Jr. and other violent incidents in the BARMM.

The second was for the immediate decommissioning of MILF forces, camps, and base commands. 

The governors said the decommissioning process is a crucial step in the implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) that was signed by the government and the MILF in 2014. The agreement sought to end decades of conflict in the region.

The provincial chief executives also called for the postponement of the barangay elections in the BARMM scheduled on October 30 until after the full decommissioning of MILF. 

They said holding the elections while MILF forces were still present could lead to potential security risks and could compromise the peace process in the Bangsamoro region.

The joint statement condemned the ambush of Adiong and his companions in Maguing, Lanao del Sur, which resulted in the deaths of three police escorts and the governor’s driver.

Adiong and one of his aides, and a soldier were wounded. 

The governors said they were worried about the “alarming rise of violent incidents in the region.”

They cited Maguindanao, Cotabato City, and BARMM’s special geographic areas in Cotabato province as areas where killings occur almost daily. 

The violence, they said, “spares no one, not even children.”

“Schools are closed in the municipality of Pikit (Cotabato) due to the worsening peace and order,” read part of the statement.

The governors said they also noted that there was climate of lawlessness in BARMM areas where MILF base commands are located. 

In these areas, they said, local governments, the Philippine National Police (PNP), and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) are restrained from enforcing law and order by the “peace process mechanisms.”

The governors said the mechanisms bar the entry of law enforcement agencies in the so-called “MILF territories.”

The statement cited another recent incident in Maguing, Lanao del Sur, where 39 elite army soldiers of the Special Forces of the Army conducting law enforcement operations were disarmed and held by members of the MILF on the pretext that their movement and operations were not coordinated. 

They pointed out that it was also in Maguing where the ambush of Adiong was carried out.

The CAB provides for the completion of the decommissioning process by the May 2022 elections. But the governors said 15,300 have yet to be decommissioned out of 40,000 MILF combatants.

They also claimed that “only 4,625 firearms” of the MILF have been decommissioned so far.

“Until our law enforcement agencies take full control of the law and order in the BARMM, the barangay elections in October will be marred by violence and lead to failure,” the governors’ joint statement warned. – Rappler.com

Ferdinandh Cabrera is an Aries Rufo Journalism fellow.