DAVAO CITY—A former critic of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), who now heads the government’s socioeconomic planning unit in Mindanao, is throwing his support to the revolutionary organization on the management of an autonomous region for Filipino Muslims in the south.
“We must give them a little leeway and understanding given the fact that they are former rebels who are thrust into a new task of governing a huge political territory for the first time,” Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol, chief of the Mindanao Development Authority, said.
In a statement he titled “Let’s give peace a chance!” Piñol said his call to support the extension of the transition period for the MILF in the Barmm “would come as a surprise to many observers given my reputation as one of the fiercest critics of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the past.”
During his tenure as multi-term governor of North Cotabato, Piñol was a staunch critic of the MILF and had filed court cases and petition with the national government to castigate the revolutionary group for attacks on non-Moro communities.
“The Mindanao Development Authority, officially, and I, in both my official and personal capacity, support the move to extend the transition period of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao for another three years,” he said.
Indeed, he said, “the performance of the current officials of the Barmm is far from excellent but they are evidently trying their best.”
Piñol said “from using guns to impose and pursue a dream, they now utilize the law and government instrumentalities to provide their people a better life.”
“Their capabilities in running a huge government bureaucracy still leave a lot of room for improvement. They are sometimes slow and too cautious in their decision-making but I would personally rate their performance as ‘better than most’ with no intent to denigrate the previous leaders of the Bangsamoro Region,” he added.
The Barmm was constituted from the previous Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao to form part of the package to the MILF to persuade them to sign a peace agreement with government, and agree to lay down their weapons and decommission their estimated 40,000 armed followers. The MILF was given three years as transition period to transform the nascent Barmm into a working autonomous regional government.
The MILF and the Barmm transition authority argued that time was materially short to produce basic laws and legal codes to govern the autonomous region, what other autonomous regions in other countries were able to do in more than 10 years.
On March 18, the 53rd anniversary of the infamous Jabidah Massacre of young Moro Army recruits in Corregidor, peace advocates and civil-society organizations submitted the petition for extension of the transition period. This contained the signature of more than 1 million residents in the Barmm and other residents from as far as Northern Luzon, and from religious and Congressional luminaries outside of the Muslim communities. The organizing groups are still awaiting word from Malacañang which they sought for a Presidential certification as urgent bills that are already pending in both houses of Congress.
Piñol said some of the MILF leaders and followers “are still afflicted with ‘this is ours’ syndrome where they claim exclusive right to govern the Barmm because they fought for it.”
This is something which must be corrected because they must work with the other stakeholders in the region to succeed, he added.
From the outside, Piñol said, “I see a group of former rebels working hard to deliver the dreams that they shared with their people, including the former combatants who lost loved ones in their half-century struggle.”
“Operating and moving inside the autonomous region, I could smell the fresh air of hope for peace, tranquility and progress,” he said.
Piñol said that while he was considered Public Enemy No. 1 of the MILF when I was governor of North Cotabato, “I could now freely travel even at night in formerly perilous areas within the region in the performance of my job as MinDA chairman.”
Outside of the BARMM, he said, “people, especially in my home province of North Cotabato, enjoy new-found stability and a sense of security.”
“Gone are the ambuscades, the attacks on villages, the kidnappings, the bombings and other atrocities in the past which were part of the realities of a revolutionary struggle,” he said.
“So, instead of questioning their capability to govern, let us support them. Rather than despise the slow-paced and cautious implementation of projects, let us help empower them,” he said. “The gains of peace are simply too clear and the effects so comforting to ignore.”
Piñol said the peace pact forged by the government under President Duterte “is a defining moment in our history as a nation.”
“We must not squander this chance of enjoying the blessings of peace in Mindanao. This is the best legacy that our generation could bequeath to the Filipinos of tomorrow.”
“Let us give peace a chance,” he said.
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