KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews / 27 February) — The Bangsamoro peace process is in “limbo,” the erstwhile rebel group Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said.

In an editorial entitled “Need for a full-pledged GPH Panel Chair now” published Thursday on luwaran.com, the website of the MILF Central Committee’s information group, the front revealed the status of the peace process through a message to the international community.

“The international community — the ICG, the TPMT, the development partners, the multilateral institutions that have invested in the Bangsamoro peace process — should understand clearly: the peace process is in limbo, not because of the MILF, but because the government has yet to ensure that its own implementing structure is functional,” it stated.

ICG stands for the International Contact Group and the TPMT for the Third Party Monitoring Team. The ICG is a formal hybrid peace process mediation support mechanism consisting of foreign states and international non-government organizations while the TPMT is mandated to monitor, review and assess the implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB).

The MILF pointed out the reported resignation of GPH Peace Implementing Panel (PIP) chair Cesar Yano, which it stressed “is a structural rupture at the heart of the peace process.”

“The MILF finds itself without a dialogue partner. The CAB, in practical terms, is in a state of suspension,” it said.

The front called on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to appoint a new GPH-PIP chair, which is the MILF’s constituted counterpart in the implementation of the CAB.

The MILF also sought a clarification on the roles of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity (OPAPRU) and the GPH Peace Implementing Panel, stressing that the OPAPRU is not the GPH Peace Implementing Panel.

MindaNews sought the OPAPRU, which is headed by Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., for comments on the MILF editorial but to no avail as of 6 p.m. Friday.

As this developed, the think tank Institute for Autonomy and Governance (IAG) and peace watchdog Climate Conflict Action (CCA) have issued a joint statement warning that the Bangsamoro peace process “is on the brink of collapse.”

“Trust is rapidly eroding between and among the Parties. Hope is under siege by betrayal from both sides,” the joint statement issued Wednesday stated.

The two non-government organizations noted that cracks are appearing at the GPH-MILF peace implementing table.

“Cooperation is dissolving into confrontation, as the gains of the past decade disintegrate before the eyes of the agreement’s authors and ardent promoters,” they said.

About a year ago, the IAG and CCA sounded the alarm on the Bangsamoro peace process, citing the expanding horizontal conflict, including clashes between rival armed groups within the MILF, and the resurgence and reemergence of violent extremism.

“We traced the rise in violence to the stalled decommissioning process, the large and growing number of illicit weapons in circulation, a political transition in gridlock, and the inability and unwillingness of both parties to acknowledge the structural and institutional flaws in the peace agreement and the fragile peace infrastructure bound to it,” they said.

Among others, IAG and CCA urged the Philippine government and the MILF to uphold the agreements enshrined in the CAB and the Bangsamoro Organic Law.

“Urgent steps must be taken to restore trust among its stakeholders and rekindle hopes of meaningful change. The process should start with identifying and harnessing mediators who can speak the truth to both sides of the implementing panel and heads of the multiple parties in the process,” they stated.

The two groups appealed to the parties to temper their language, stop finger pointing, and address the issues head on — transparently and in good faith.

In August last year, the independent TPMT also expressed grave concern on the Bangsamoro peace process in Mindanao, which it stressed “has reached a perilous juncture.”

The foreign-led TPMT sounded the alarm even as it noted that the Bangsamoro peace process “has fundamentally transformed” the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

“The TPMT notes with grave concern that the Bangsamoro peace process has reached a perilous juncture. Trust among the parties is at an all-time low since [the] signature of the CAB,” it said in a statement.

The Government of the Philippines and the MILF signed the CAB on March 27, 2014, after 17 years of peace negotiations. The final peace agreement paved the way for the establishment of Bangsamoro region in 2019, following the ratification of Republic 11054 or the Organic Law for the BARMM. (Bong S. Sarmiento / MindaNews)