DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 15 July 2026) — Presidential Peace Adviser Mel Senen Sarmiento has been appointed concurrently as chair of the government’s Peace Implementing Panel in the Bangsamoro Peace Process.
This was announced Wednesday noon by Atty. Claire Castro, Undersecretary of the Presidential Communications Office and Palace Press Officer, at the end of the press briefing with the Malacañang Press Corps.
“At bago po tayo magtapos, mayroon po tayong announcement. Naitalaga po bilang chairperson of Government Peace Implementing Panel for the Government of the Philippines (GPH PIP) – Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Peace Process, si Secretary Mel Senen S. Sarmiento,” Castro said.
Reporters asked if he was serving his new post on a concurrent capacity. She replied: “Ang ibinigay po sa atin sa ngayon ay naitalaga rin siya” (What was given to us is that he was also appointed).
Sarmiento is the sixth GPH PIP chair since the Peace Implementing Panels were created 10 years ago.
“A big challenge but…”
In a statement released by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity (OPAPRU) at 1:30 p.m., Sarmiento, who was appointed Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation, and Unity on April 21, acknowledged that concurrently leading the government’s peace panel in the implementation of the peace agreement with the MILF — the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) — is “indeed a big challenge, but it provides a seamless alignment.”
He said these two roles “will complement one another as we accelerate our collective quest to advance the Bangsamoro peace process.”
Sarmiento said the President’s guidance is “crystal clear: the Marcos administration will double its efforts in implementing the landmark and historic Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro. We remain unyielding in our commitments to the milestones achieved with the MILF.”
He said he looks forward to working “closely and constructively” with his counterparts in the MILF to ensure a “productive, collaborative, transparent, and time-bound implementation of the remaining commitments of the CAB.”
Addressing the Bangsamoro people and local and international peace partners, Sarmiento said their unwavering support is “the bedrock of this journey.”
He appealed for their continued, steadfast commitment “as we walk this path together, shepherding a lasting and inclusive peace under Bagong Pilipinas.”
“Most welcome development”
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 on Wednesday.
“Hope the way forwards is smooth. All what is needed is to stay the course of the CAB,” Iqbal said.
Iqbal was MILF Peace Negotiating Panel chair from 2003 until 2014 and has been the lone chair of the MILF Peace Implementing Panel since 2016. Sarmiento will be his sixth counterpart chair.
In March this year, MILF chair Murad declared a “temporary pause” in their engagements in the Bangsamoro peace process until a “full-fledged chairman” of the government peace implementing panel is named.
In July last year, the MILF suspended the decommissioning process until there is “substantial compliance” by the national government in the other tracks of normalization, such as the provision of socio-economic package to the 26,145 decommissioned combatants.
For Abdulraof Macacua, interim Chief Minister of the BARMM, “on the side of the BARMM, we adhere to the wish of the national government,” he told MindaNews in a text message.
“Not ideal but…”
Gus Miclat, Executive Director of the Davao City-based Initiatives for International Dialogue, told MindaNews that Sarmiento’s concurrent role as GPH PIP chair is “not ideal, but a welcome development if it cuts through and leads to consolidating and aligning the interfacing, if not, clashing layers of accountability and bureaucracy within government’s peace mechanisms on the Bangsamoro peace process.”
“We look forward to his earnestly hitting the ground running by meeting ASAP with his counterpart in the MILF to start unknotting together what has caused the stall and almost total collapse of the CAB because of the unnecessary but almost fatal bumps that the implementation of the agreement has gone through. Civil society and IID is ready to support in any way we can to accompany the process to its rightful fruition,” Miclat said.
Rufa Guiam, co-convenor of the Independent Working Group on Transitional Justice, told MindaNews that she hopes Sarmiento will look at the Bangsamoro peace process beyond the lens of peace and order and national security because “it is more than these twin issues,” and that transitional justice is important to address the historical injustices, as mandated by the CAB.
Teresita Quintos-Deles, Presidential Peace Adviser from 2003 to 2005 and 2010 to 2016 and under whose term the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) and CAB were signed, does not also think of the new appointment as ideal because “that will be two fulltime jobs he will be holding — both with enormous backlogs…”
But Deles said she wishes Sarmiento well.
“He needs to hit the ground running. After three months of listening sessions, there’s no time to waste. The process needs to be immediately resumed — with the principal party, never again unilaterally — and relentlessly pursued with its multiple stakeholders and constituencies,” Deles said, adding, “we will be watching and always ready to help.”
Sarmiento’s previous posts
Sarmiento succeeded Mar Roxas as Local Governments Secretary, serving the post from September 11, 2015 to June 30, 2016.
Sarmiento was elected Representative of the 1st district of Samar from June 30, 1992 to June 30, 1995; was Vice Mayor of Calbayog from June 30, 2001 to June 30, 2010: and Mayor from June 30, 2010 to September 10, 2015.
Sarmiento served as chair of the Galing Pook Foundation and was Secretary-General of the Liberal Party where he has been a member since 2009.
Sarmiento is the 12th Presidential Peace Adviser across six Presidential administrations. (Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews)
