The structural defect that stalled the peace process for over a year is finally cured. With a government panel chair who can commit, the two panels have no more excuse to wait—and no time to lose before September. To Secretary
Many people are treating the UBJP accreditation fight as a technical election-law dispute. That reading is too narrow. In BARMM, this is not just about party registration requirements. It is about the political phase of a peace settlement. The first
PASIG CITY (MindaNews / 21 April) — Procedure is not a technical detail in peace implementation. It is where trust is either built or spent. The Bangsamoro peace process is not collapsing in one dramatic event. It is being stressed
PASIG CITY (MindaNews / 17 April) – The most fragile phase of a peace process is often the one that sounds most confident in public. That is where Bangsamoro appears to be today: narrative coherence improving faster than implementation coherence.
In many Bangsamoro communities today, one question keeps coming up: Who do we follow now? The MILF led by Kagi Murad? The BARMM government led by Chief Minister Macacua? The national government through Secretary Galvez of OPAPRU?Or the datus and traditional families
PASIG CITY (MindaNews / 9 April) — As September 2026 approaches, one point should be clear: the MILF has already secured a historic political victory. The Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro stands. The Bangsamoro Organic Law stands. The Bangsamoro government
The September 2026 BARMM parliamentary elections are being framed as a democratic milestone. That is true. But it is not the whole truth. This election is also a stress test of peace. For years, Bangsamoro politics was held together by
PASIG CITY (MindaNews / 31 March) — MILF Vice Chairman Mohagher Iqbal said something significant recently. The UBJP, the MILF’s political party, will accept the results of free, fair, and honest elections. That is a meaningful democratic commitment. Let me
*Seven of ten school divisions with the worst reading rates are in the Bangsamoro. This is not a coincidence.* — The EDCOM 2 literacy data on readers triggered a predictable response: more reading programs, more teacher training, more classroom budgets
PASIG CITY (MindaNews / 25 March) – The MILF gave up independence for genuine autonomy and parity of esteem. What it got was control. Among the many misunderstandings that have accumulated between the Philippine government and the MILF over the
PASIG CITY (MindaNews / 23 March) – The MILF’s unaddressed grievances are real. What is being built around them in the political shadows is the more urgent problem. The Marcos-Duterte UniTeam ended in disaster. What will replace it is being
OPAPRU’s response correctly defends the peace architecture. It does not address what actually broke — or how the process moves forward when trust cannot be rebuilt. The MILF’s declaration of a temporary pause on some aspects of engagement under the
The MILF paused the peace process this week. Manila needs to understand why — and what kind of appointment will actually fix it. In a Statement dated March 12, 2026, the MILF declared a temporary pause on all substantive peace
The danger in BARMM’s first elections is not the calendar. It is the capture. Congress has passed the bill. September 2026 is the date for BARMM’s first parliamentary elections. Two Supreme Court petitions challenging BAA No. 86 — the redistricting
PASIG CITY (MindaNews / 13 March) – Six misconceptions are costing us the peace process. — When the MILF suspended its decommissioning commitments in July 2025, the immediate response from many quarters was predictable: calls for dialogue, assurances of commitment
PASIG CITY (MindaNews / 11 March) — There is a comfortable assumption that runs through every peace process: that everyone at the table — governments, armed groups, civil society, international partners — wants the process to succeed. It shapes how
PASIG CITY (MindaNews / 08 March) — On July 26, 2018, Republic Act 11054 was signed into law. On January 25, 2019, the Bangsamoro people ratified it. The applause — in Malacañang, in Camp Darapanan, in the offices of international donors
PASIG CITY (MindaNews / 4 March) — Most risk assessments of the Bangsamoro peace process share a common architecture. They track Manila’s political will. They monitor the BTA’s institutional development. They flag fiscal autonomy gaps, election delays, and the decommissioning
The Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro is in danger of becoming the next failed Philippine peace agreement — not because the agreement is flawed, and not because the Bangsamoro people are unready, but because the legal foundation on which it
PASIG CITY (MindaNews / 28 February) — A petition filed at the Supreme Court on February 9 challenging Bangsamoro Autonomy Act No. 86 will almost certainly delay BARMM’s elections again. That delay will test the patience of communities that have
MindaNews / 26 February – Every election season in the Bangsamoro, the same reports emerge. Datus negotiating bloc votes. Liberation groups directing their constituencies. Whole communities arriving at the polls having already decided together. COMELEC and international observers note the
The Philippines is once again arguing in the wrong courtroom. Not The Hague—that part is finally right. The argument I mean is the one happening on television, in senatorial halls, in social media threads across the country: ICC versus sovereignty.
PASIG CITY (MindaNews / 23 Feb) — Anthony de Mello, the Jesuit priest and storyteller, once wrote about a tribe that lost the art of making fire. A wise man taught them the skill. When he died, the priests preserved
Mindanao already knows what the world is still learning This week, something rare is happening across Mindanao. Muslim families have entered Ramadan — the month of fasting, prayer, and renewed surrender to Allah. And Catholic families received ashes on their
The Bangsamoro peace process is in trouble. It is getting worse by the day. And the most dangerous part is that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. does not appear to be paying attention. This is not a new dynamic. The Bangsamoro
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews / 20 October ) — On February 6, 1982, I was a 13-year-old student at Xavier University High School who cut classes to be with my father to witness the Founding Convention of Partido Demokratiko
PASIG CITY (MindaNews/06 August) – On 27 July 2019, Senator Ralph G. Recto filed a Resolution directing the Senate Committee on Local Government to conduct an inquiry, in aid of legislation, on the “update of the implementation of Republic Act
QUEZON CITY (MindaNews / 10 June) — The peace infrastructure between the Government of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is complicated and unstable. We need to make it simple and stable. Not the parties’ fault. That the
The peace process between the Government and the MILF is facing challenging times. From the heavenly euphoria of the signing of the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB), the negotiators are back on the ground and working out the details
QUEZON CITY (MindaNews/05 May) — Edward de Bono talks about the “peaking effect”: “Athletes train hard for the Olympic Games. Their aim is to reach peak mental and physical condition during the Games. It is sometimes said of tennis players
UPON the invitation of the British Embassy in Manila, I listened to Rt. Hon. Paul Murphy, former Secretary of State for Wales and Northern Ireland, share his experiences and thoughts on “Post-settlement and Powersharing in Divided Societies: The Experience of
PASIG CITY (MindaNews/20 September) — The MILF proposal is designed to make sure that the country is not dismembered. Its purpose is to make sure that national integrity and national territory is preserved. This is the clear common ground of
Dominant idea as a big elephant The parties can profit if both of them discuss the “dominant idea” that organizes their thinking on the matter. The dominant idea, of course, has been called a lot of names in the past,
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/27 August) — The MILF earlier issued its “11 General Features of the MILF comprehensive compact proposal” and the Government, in turn, countered with its “11 Characteristics of the government proposal.” The lack of agreement is
PASIG CITY (MindaNews/15 August) – The Tokyo Meeting between President Aquino and MILF Chairman Murad signals a new relationship between the Government and the MILF – a new relationship that is characterized as “not of adversaries but partners in problem-solving”.
PASIG CITY (MindaNews/9 Aug) – One way to escape the clutches of a restrictive negotiations process is to move from the usual debate, clash and discussion of position papers and “non-negotiables” to an exploration of expected benefits and values –
“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein PASIG CITY (MindaNews/07 August) — After the meeting of Philippine President Aquino and MILF Chairman Murad in Tokyo, the real
QUEZON CITY (MindaNews/10 July) — Late last year, the ArtforPeace Group (APG), Nonviolent Peaceforce Philippines (NP) and several community-based NGOs partnered to converse directly select Bangsamoro communities in Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte on the topic of
