MILF halts key talks over ‘gap’ in gov’t peace panel

COTABATO CITY — The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has declared a temporary stop in several aspects of engagement with the government under the joint mechanism for implementing the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB).

This came as the former rebel group noted that the government’s peace implementing panel (PIP) is leaderless.

“In the exercise of prudence, MILF deems it appropriate to declare a temporary pause in several aspects of engagement under the peace implementation mechanisms until a full-fledged chairman of the government Peace Implementing Panel is appointed,” MILF chair Al Haj Murad Ebrahim said in a March 12 statement that circulated on Monday.

This development comes as civil society organizations, academic institutions, and peace advocates issued a joint manifesto, also on March 12, urging President Marcos to, among others, immediately reconstitute “the leadership responsible for managing the national government’s peace process.”

The groups said the move is needed “to restore credibility, trust, and effective stewardship of the process.”

They also urged the President to ensure that the government’s PIP “has the authority, mandate, and institutional backing necessary to effectively engage with its counterparts and oversee the implementation of commitments under the peace agreements.”

‘Standing alone’

Ebrahim said that without a government PIP chair, the MILF’s PIP “now stands alone in this dance that was meant for two.”

The MILF panel is chaired by Mohagher Iqbal, who led its negotiating panel toward a peace deal with the government in 2014.

The government panel is headed by retired Army Brig. Gen. Cesar Yano, who was rumored to have resigned in early January. There has been no official pronouncement about his status to date, although an editorial published by the MILF’s committee on information on Feb. 26 stated that the government’s PIP “has been without a permanent chair.”

This, the group said, is not a mere administrative vacancy but “a structural rupture at the heart of the peace process.”

Ebrahim said the absence of a government PIP chair “has left a gaping hole in the implementation of the peace agreement at this very crucial stage in the transition period.”

He emphasized that carrying out the CAB “demands jointness, bilateral actions, and mutuality.”

In the absence of a government PIP chair, Ebrahim said the MILF “finds itself unable to proceed with substantive engagements that require formal commitments and authoritative decisions.”

He expressed hope that the President would make a “prompt designation … so that the shared work of completing the implementation of the CAB may proceed with clarity, certainty, and renewed momentum.” INQ