MILF urges concrete timelines to complete CAB commitments

COTABATO CITY — The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on Friday called on the Government of the Philippines (GPH) to leave the latest round of talks between the two Parties with “concrete steps, clear timelines, and the political will to meet them” in completing the implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB).

Mohagher Iqbal, chairman of the MILF Peace Implementing Panel, made the call in his opening statement at the meeting of the GPH-MILF Peace Implementing Panels here on Sept. 25.

“We do not meet to reopen what we settled. We meet to resume and complete the work we signed up for,” Iqbal said.

He described the CAB as “not unfinished business that we revisit when convenient” but “a solemn commitment that both Parties made to the Bangsamoro people and to each other.”

Iqbal listed the remaining work under the agreement: decommissioning of MILF combatants and weapons carried to its conclusion “in due measure,” the transformation of the MILF camps into productive and peaceful communities, the dismantling of private armed groups, and transitional justice.

“These are not MILF demands. They are our common obligations under the CAB,” he said.

He also acknowledged the GPH's continuing resolve to implement the agreement, but stressed that the decommissioned combatants and their families “have been patient” and “deserve to see the promise of normalization fulfilled in their lifetime.”

Iqbal thanked the National Government for holding the first Bangsamoro Parliamentary Elections on Sept. 14, in keeping with its commitment under the CAB.

He also thanked Secretary Mel Senen Sarmiento, chairman of the GPH Peace Implementing Panel, and the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity (OPAPRU) for being present on election day and “for standing up for the primacy of the peace process.”

He said, however, that the MILF “cannot pass over what happened on that day in silence,” citing pre-shaded ballots, widespread vote buying, and violence that left five people dead and 48 wounded.

He asked the National Government to investigate, identify, and prosecute those responsible, “regardless of affiliation.”

“Impunity is the enemy of peace. The integrity of our elections and the integrity of this process are bound together,” Iqbal said.

He said the United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP), the MILF's political party, won 30 seats in the Bangsamoro Parliament, and that it will “take up these seats with humility and serve every Moro, including those who did not vote for us.”

Iqbal stressed that the peace process did not end with the election of the Parliament's members, and he described the formation of the government of the day as the “most immediate” and “very challenging” task.

He said it is “most desired” that whoever heads the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) also serve, “in a way,” as an interlocutor between the Parties to the peace process, especially the MILF, as “the two realms are interconnected.”

Iqbal also thanked the Government of Malaysia, through its facilitator, Tan Sri Zulkifli Zainal Abidin, for staying with the process since 2001 “through ceasefires, deadlocks, and breakdowns of talks.”

“Peace processes are not sustained by speeches. They are sustained by people who keep showing up. Malaysia keeps showing up,” he said.

The meeting was also attended by members of the International Contact Group, the Third Party Monitoring Team, and the GPH and MILF secretariats.

The GPH and the MILF signed the CAB on March 27, 2014, after talks facilitated by Malaysia.