DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 17 July) – A day after his appointment as concurrent chair of the government’s Peace Implementing Panel (PIP) in the Bangsamoro peace process, Presidential Peace Adviser Mel Senen Sarmiento hit the ground running by meeting with heads of the government’s (GPH) Peace Process Mechanisms, not in Metro Manila where he is based, but in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
On Thursday at the 6th Infantry Division in Awang, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte, Sarmiento met with the heads of the government’s peace process mechanisms in the implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), the peace agreement signed by the government (GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on March 27, 2014.
On Friday, he visited the MILF’s Camp Badre in Guindulungan, Maguindanao del Sur.
Also on Friday, Sarmiento told MindaNews on the phone that that they are conducting workshops in preparation for the meeting with the MILF PIP “at the soonest possible time.”
“We are currently inspecting the camps as part of the Camp Transformation Program,” he said, adding he visited Camp Badre “together with the Bangsamoro Development Administration.”
On July 3, Sarmiento visited Camp Bilal in Munai, Lanao del Norte, where he met with Abdullah G. Macapaar aka Commander Bravo, who has been serving as Member of Parliament in the BARMM since February 2019.
He told MindaNews they are conducting workshops on the GPH side “to develop a clear way forward an implement our catch-up plan.”
As soon as the “necessary administrative improvements” have been completed, Sarmiento added, “we will immediately sit down with our MILF counterparts to fast-track the implementation of our remaining commitments.”
Sarmiento was briefed on Thursday evening by the GPH chairs of the following peace mechanisms: the Ad Hoc Joint Action Group (AHJAG), Coordinating Committee on Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH), Independent Decommissioning Body (IDB), Joint Communications Committee (JCC), Joint Normalization Committee (JNC), Joint Peace and Security Committee (JPSC), Joint Task Forces on Camps Transformation (JTFCT), Task Force for Decommissioned Combatants and their Communities (TFDCC), and Technical Working Group on Transitional Justice and Reconciliation (TWG-TJR).
Sarmiento, appointed in April as Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity vice Carlito Galvez, was appointed as concurrent GPH PIP chair on Wednesday, July 15, a move welcomed by the MILF.
The bakery and food processing facility in the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s Camp Badre is a project of OPAPRU with DOST under Science for Peace Program through the Joint Task Forces on Camps Transformation. Photo courtesy of OPAPRU
(An earlier version of this caption from OPAPRU said this was a joint venture of the Bangsamoro Development Agency and the Community and Family Services International, and supported by the Bangsamoro Normalization Trust Fund under the Bangsamoro Camps Transformation Project)
Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, chair of the government’s peace negotiating panel who signed the CAB for the government on March 27, 2014, told MindaNews on Wednesday evening that she trusts Sarmiento and his team “have gone past the learning curve, that they will give the implementation of the different components of the peace agreement their utmost focus and work together with the MILF as government’s implementing partner with integrity and mutual respect.”
“Excellent choice”
MILF Peace Implementing Panel chair Mohagher Iqbal said Sarmiento’s appointment is “a most welcome development!”
“We are coming with our congratulations! It is a most welcome development! He is a Cabinet member: he can commit,” Iqbal told MindaNews in a text message early Wednesday afternoon, shortly after the noontime announcement of Sarmiento’s appointment.
“Hope the way forward is smooth. All what is needed is to stay the course of the CAB,” Iqbal said.
On Wednesday evening, Iqbal posted on his social media page that Sarmiento’s appointment “inspires hope and reinforces confidence in the continued advancement of the peace process” and described him as an “excellent choice.”
He also expressed the MILF’s “sincere appreciation to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for responding positively to the call of the people by reaffirming the Government’s commitment to the full and faithful implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro.”
He said the MILF looks forward to the immediate convening of the GPH and MILF panels.
“We consider Secretary Sarmiento an excellent choice and believe his leadership will be instrumental in addressing the current challenges of the peace process, particularly in the holding of an honest, peaceful, free, and credible conduct of the historic Bangsamoro Parliamentary Elections,” he said.
Election period
The thrice-postponed 1st Bangsamoro Parliamentary Elections will be held on September 14.
Voters will elect 80 Members of Parliament (MPs) – 40 party representatives, 32 single district representatives and eight sectoral representatives The election period started on Thursday, July 16, with a gun ban.
The 45-day campaign period will start on July 30.
Iqbal, the MILF PIP chair, is number 2 nominee of the United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP) after MILF chair Ahod “Al Haj Murad” Ebrahim.
The newly-elected Members of Parliament will assume their posts on October 30, the same day the transition period that started in February 2019, ends. (Carolyn O. Arguillas)
