Road to peace

THE SIGNING of the Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro on March 27, 2014 by the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front is a cause for celebration not only for the Bangsamoro of Mindanao but the whole Filipino people. This event signals a new chapter in war-torn Mindanao and should make all people there hope for a better future.

“No more war, no more children scampering for safety, no more evacuees, no more lost school days or school months, no more injustice, no more misgovernance, no more poverty, no more fear. Tama na, we are all tired of it,” Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Quintos Deles said.

“A new dawn has come, the dawn for books not bullets, for paintbrushes not knives, for whole communities not evacuation centers, and for rewarding toil not endless strife,” Deles added.

MILF chair Al Haj Murad Ebrahim tabbed the CAB the “crowning glory” of their struggle as he stressed that the CAB would not spawn a government of the MILF but that of the Bangsamoro.

He added: “After all, the CAB is not only for the MILF, it is for the MNLF as well as much as it is for all the Muslim ethnic tribes, the Christian settlers and the indigenous peoples in the prospective Bangsamoro territories.

I would like to impress upon all of you that the MILF does not and will never claim sole ownership of the CAB.”

Pres. Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III, who said his face-to-face meeting with the MILF chief in Japan jumpstarted the peace process, warned those who plan to derail and sabotage the agreement, emphasizing: “. I will not let peace be snatched from my people again.”

The road to the CAB was perilous and fraught with tensions. Just last year, a faction of the Moro National Liberation Front invaded Zamboanga to express their disagreement with the CAB. On March 27, however, new MNLF chairman Datu HJ. Abul Khayr Alonto, who also attended the signing, threw his support behind the creation of the Bangsamoro political entity.

Still, there is still a tough road ahead as a basic law on the CAB must be passed by Congress then a referendum would be held for the ratification of the said law on areas concerned.

And as it is, this boils down to the political will of the President to make his allies in Congress work faster to realize this dream. Whatever the agreement becomes in the future it would be anchored on the sincerity of both sides to do what they pledged to do. And should they become true to their words, the elusive peace for Mindanao might just soon become a reality.