DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 02 August 2026) – The Bangsamoro peace process is back on track with the government (GPH) and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Peace Implementing Panels (PIPs) finally meeting on August 4 here.
“The August 4 meeting is intended to provide an opportunity for the GPH and MILF Panels to re-engage following the designation of the new GPH Panel Chair and to reaffirm their shared commitment to the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB),” Presidential Peace Adviser and concurrent GPH PIP chair Mel Senen Sarmiento told MindaNews on Sunday afternoon.
He said the meeting is being convened “in line with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s unwavering commitment to the Bangsamoro peace process and his guidance to fast-track the implementation of the government’s remaining commitments under the CAB.”
The PIPs, Sarmiento said, are expected to discuss “the way forward in implementing the CAB, including a proposed declaration on the continuity of their partnership in implementing the Agreement, as well as the agenda and schedule for the succeeding substantive meeting.”
MILF Peace Implementing Panel chair Mohagher Iqbal told MindaNews on Sunday afternoon that he expects a “meeting of the minds to move forward.”
He said the August 4 meeting aims to “hammer out the agenda of the forthcoming meeting at a mutually agreed venue.”
“Temporary pause”
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.
In mid-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.
On April 21, Marcos appointed Sarmiento, a former Local Governments Secretary under the Aquino administration, as the new Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity, vice Carlito Galvez who resigned citing health reasons.
On July 15, Sarmiento was named to a concurrent position as GPH PIP chair.
The CAB is the peace agreement signed by government and the MILF on March 27, 2014 under the Aquino administration, paving the way for the establishment of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Regio in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
The BARMM was established in 2019 after the CAB’s implementing law, the Organic Law for the BARMM (RA 11054) was ratified in a plebiscite. The BARMM has been governed since February 2019 by the 80-member Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte and in 2022 by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
The transition period would have ended on June 30, 2022 but was extended to June 30, 2025 and again extended to October 30, 2025 and finally October 30, 2026.
The autonomous region will hold its long-delayed 1st Bangsamoro Parliamentary Elections on September 14. The 45-day campaign period started on July 30.
The first regional voting was supposed to be held in May 2022 but was reset to May 2025, rescheduled to October 2025 and finally set for September 14.
The new set of officials will assume their posts on October 30, the day the transition period ends.
(Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews)
