COTABATO CITY – Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Peace Implementing Panel chairperson Mohagher Iqbal has welcomed the national government’s assurance that it will not intervene in the Bangsamoro Parliament’s selection of the region’s next chief minister.
Iqbal , an elected Member of Parliament (MP), thanked President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for what he called a “clear and unequivocal commitment” to respect the Parliament’s authority to choose its own leadership under the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL).
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He also expressed appreciation to Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity (OPAPRU) Secretary Mel Senen Sarmiento, whose office issued a statement on Monday saying the selection of the regional leadership is “a matter strictly internal to the Bangsamoro Parliament.”
“This assurance goes to the heart of what our people struggled for,” Iqbal said in reaction to Sarmiento’s statement.
Iqbal said the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) and the BOL were meant to give substance to the Bangsamoro people’s right to self-determination, including the right to choose their leaders through their elected representatives.
“When the Members of Parliament gather after taking their oath on October 30 to elect the Chief Minister, that choice must be theirs, and theirs alone,” he said.
Iqbal, who served as the MILF’s chief negotiator in the talks that led to the CAB, said the President’s commitment honors “not only the letter of the law, but the spirit of the peace agreement” signed in good faith by the Government of the Philippines and the MILF.
In its statement, OPAPRU cited Marcos’ Oct. 14 remarks following the announcement of a 46-member majority coalition in the 80-seat Parliament, in which the President said he respects the Parliament’s authority to determine its leadership and looks forward to working with the government it constitutes.
Sarmiento said the President will reach out to all political parties in the region once the Parliament has chosen its leaders and formed the Government of the Day.
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He added that with the political track of the CAB reaching “full maturity,” the government will place renewed focus on the normalization track, which includes the decommissioning of the remaining MILF combatants, the dismantling of private armed groups, and a parallel peace-building and decommissioning agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).
Iqbal welcomed the renewed attention to normalization but stressed that it “is not decommissioning alone.”
“It encompasses the socioeconomic transformation of our former combatants and their communities, transitional justice and reconciliation, and the security arrangements that will allow our people to live in peace and dignity,” he said.
He also called on his fellow MPs, “regardless of party,” to show that “the Bangsamoro is capable of governing itself with wisdom, unity, and integrity.” /jpv
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