COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Sarah Makamad thinks she is 59 years previous, however she isn’t positive. When and the place she was born, it wasn’t automated for folks to register births with the federal government. She sells greens at a rickety roadside stall in Camp Darapanan, the expansive headquarters of the Moro Islamic Liberation Entrance (MILF) in Maguindanao del Norte.
A hefty bunch of her inexperienced leafies goes for P30 — less expensive than in supermarkets.
“Gano’n din.” It’s the identical, she mentioned, when requested what modified because the MILF took over the regional authorities — when her homeland grew to become the Bangsamoro Autonomous Area in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) in February 2019.
She meant that life, for her, is identical as ever.
Sure elements of the camp present ostensible change. Enchancment. What was once a picket bungalow for gatherings is now a monumental concrete corridor with bleachers on both aspect and a dais on the other finish from the lobby. A rostrum stands stage middle, bearing the MILF seal.
Troopers nonetheless guard each different nook of the camp. Their arm patches nonetheless say “Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces” — BIAF, the MILF’s military that proved credible sufficient to power the Philippine authorities into negotiations for an autonomous territory, at the very least a extra substantial one than its predecessor, the now-defunct Autonomous Area in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
In contrast to earlier than, the BIAF troopers now don’t fear about being photographed. They even take selfies with guests — broad smiles on their unconcealed faces. They’re not rebels anymore. Not outlaws.
“Ang kagandahan midday ay relaxed na sila. Hindi kagaya midday na tago nang tago,” Garex Shariff, the camp’s operations commander, advised a gaggle of visiting reporters in late January. (The fantastic thing about it’s the troopers are actually relaxed, in contrast to earlier than, after they used to all the time cover.)
‘Private commentary’
Of their lives relaxed, Shariff and the 2 different camp officers within the interview might converse with confidence. MILF households now stroll free. Their kids go to common colleges; many have obtained public scholarships. Mundane worries occupy the lads’s minds now that they’ve stopped preventing the federal government, and so they think about {that a} blessing.
However quite a few the peace deal’s guarantees have but to be fulfilled, Shariff mentioned in a cautious tone. “That is simply my private commentary,” he emphasised, disclaiming authority to talk on the matter.
Within the absence, to this point, of radical upliftment in his neighborhood’s situation, Shariff’s opinion might hardly be controversial.
For instance, some 10,000 BIAF troopers have but to be decommissioned, when the plan had been to disarm all 40,000 of them by 2022. That COVID-19 received in the way in which is an alibi typically heard from officers fielding questions concerning the delay, however even the pandemic is beginning to fade from latest reminiscence.
“Sa decommissioning, ang nakikita naming problema ay kulang talaga,” Shariff mentioned of the supply of advantages promised to former fighters in trade for his or her weapons. (With decommissioning, the issue we see is, it’s actually inadequate.)
The federal government promised each decommissioned BIAF soldier a socio-economic support bundle: P100,000 in money and livelihood help for the previous fighters, and P500,000 to P1,000,000 value of support in housing, education, and healthcare for his or her households.
“If we discuss help, nicely, they not often obtain any, past what they first received after they had been decommissioned,” Shariff mentioned in Filipino.
The dismantling of the MILF conflict equipment is the deal’s greatest merchandise for the federal government. To troopers who’ve lived most of their lives at conflict, a farewell to arms might really feel akin to emasculation. The deal’s brokers should guarantee correct compensation.
“The federal government nonetheless must handle methods to assist the decommissioned,” mentioned Shariff.
As the brand new autonomous authorities — the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) led by the MILF — wiggles itself into place, ripples of bureaucratic chaos crop up in locations.
As an illustration, within the early days of the transition, there have been “focal individuals” whom decommissioned fighters reported to for his or her advantages, Shariff mentioned. Now, authorities businesses, such because the BARMM’s social welfare ministry, course the help by way of native authorities models, sometimes the barangays.
Directors from barangays, it seems, are a lot much less acquainted with the decommissioned troopers and their whereabouts than the unique level individuals, Shariff mentioned.
“Typically, the decommissioned have moved homes or switched SIM playing cards. In that case, [the barangay administrators] couldn’t contact or discover them.”
A decade because the Mamasapano tragedy
The Bangsamoro is extremely verdant. Even in Cotabato Metropolis, the seat of the autonomous authorities, one is rarely very removed from lush thickets. The city enclave is bordered by the ocean to the west, broad rivers within the north and south, and marshland to the east. From the eighth ground of its well-known Al Nor Resort — one of many metropolis’s tallest constructions — the mountains, waters, and jungles seem so instant, it feels as if town had simply been carved out of the wilds.
A lot of the remainder of the territory is rural — so rural that paved roads are an innovation, resembling in Barangay Tukanalipao in Mamasapano, Maguindanao del Sur. This was the place, on January 25, 2015, a misencounter between troops of the Philippine Nationwide Police’s Particular Motion Drive and the BIAF, alongside fighters from an MILF splinter group, killed a complete of 66 folks, together with the SAF 44.
The street that now connects Tukanalipao to the nationwide street was the very first thing Omryan Ali Amilil, 37, talked about when visiting journalists requested him what modified in his village within the decade because the tragedy. Amilil pointed to the street and to the concrete bridge that now spans the picturesque stream that figured closely in information footage of the incident’s aftermath.
On the tragedy’s tenth anniversary, Amilil guided the journalists by way of the cornfield the place the battle occurred, to put a wreath of flowers in honor of the victims. Reporters’ cameras had been on him, and he skilled his Canon DSLR on them. For the locals, a go to from a gaggle of Luzon-based reporters was newsworthy.
“Simula pa noong pagkabata namin, parang nakalimutan na kami ng gobyerno, ba. Kumbaga, walang growth sa aming lugar,” Amilil mentioned. (Ever since our childhood, it’s as if the federal government had forgotten about us. In different phrases, there was no growth in our space.)
The tragedy drew consideration to Tukanalipao’s languid state. Since then, the federal government has constructed two colleges, housing initiatives, and mosques. The brand new three-kilometer concrete street has invigorated agriculture, Amilil mentioned, as a result of farmers now have a solution to market.
With all that change, Tukanalipao, it might be mentioned, has gone from damaging to zero. Locals are grateful for the advance of their situation, however their deprivation additionally means it takes little to impress them.
A graying native man, who goes by the identify Khons, mentioned the brand new bridge has been an enormous assist to villagers. He famous how they solely used to have a picket bridge that always gave solution to unhealthy climate. Requested whether or not he thinks justice has been served for the victims who included quite a few his civilian neighbors, with out hesitation, he mentioned, “Sure”.
Amilil’s driver’s license states his tackle as “Tukanalipao, Mamasapano, Maguindanao” — his village has no road names or home numbers. For generations and till now, the Moro folks have remained, relative to the remainder of the Philippines, within the wild.
The Bangsamoro narrative
That it took bloodshed for development to come back to Tukanalipao starkly iterates the Bangsamoro narrative. The view that mainstream Philippine society had lengthy excluded and uncared for the Moro folks was what spurred their revolt.
Destitution is actually not endemic to this a part of the nation. However the Moros’ possession of a tradition and historical past distinct from the remainder of the nation grew to become their argument for self-determination — to strike out on their very own and never wait round for distant, imperial Manila.
The MILF got here to be after its predecessor, the Moro Nationwide Liberation Entrance (MNLF), settled for autonomy in 1976, abandoning its marketing campaign for secession. The MILF continued preventing the federal government for a separate state as MNLF leaders ruled the ARMM, the nation’s first autonomous Muslim area. Then, in 1996, the MILF, too, began on-and-off negotiations with the federal government that might, 22 years later, result in the institution of the BARMM.
At the least 100,000 folks had been killed within the many years of preventing between Moro rebels and authorities forces, primarily based on official estimates. Different armed teams splintered from the MNLF, the MILF, and their offshoots, and resorted to extra excessive techniques: bombings, kidnappings, sieges, plain banditry.
The 2015 Mamasapano tragedy dampened belief within the MILF and stalled the peace course of. The ghastly siege of Marawi Metropolis by the ISIS-inspired Maute Group in 2017 inadvertently received it again on monitor — the nationwide authorities sensed the urgency of creating peace, and counted on the take care of the MILF as a wholesale answer to violence within the area.
The BARMM is meant to embody the Moro folks’s aspirations extra considerably than the ARMM did. In contrast to the ARMM, the BARMM receives 5% of the nationwide income as a yearly block grant, retains the lion’s share of earnings from its native assets, and customarily wields extra energy than different regional governments. The BARMM has its personal flag, its personal parliament, and has Islamic regulation integrated into its justice system.
It could be symbolic, however the BARMM additionally codifies the Bangsamoro into official existence — an acknowledgment in black and white of the Moro folks as a definite race and tradition.
From rebels to statesmen to politicians
That the MILF can be the Bangsamoro’s inaugural governors appeared pure. “We paid this in blood, sweat, and tears,” Mohagher Iqbal, chief of the MILF Peace Implementing Panel and now the BARMM’s training minister, advised reporters in Cotabato Metropolis on January 24.
He was answering a query about how the Cordilleran folks, who at the moment have a particular administrative area, might replicate the Moros’ success in securing autonomy.
Iqbal, the minister, is completely different from Iqbal, the peace negotiator. The minister has a extra confident stride and commanding speech; the negotiator used to nearly whisper by way of interviews. The minister additionally cracked many jokes throughout the assembly with reporters, which he might hardly do as a insurgent at conflict with the federal government.
However Iqbal, with the remainder of the MILF management, together with BARMM Chief Minister Ahod Balawag Ebrahim, faces some powerful questions now that the BTA is three years previous its authentic expiry date.
Their appointment as transitional leaders was good from 2019 to 2022, when there ought to have been an election for brand spanking new parliament leaders. Due to delays in processes largely attributable to the pandemic, the federal government prolonged the transition interval to June 30, 2025. There must be a parliamentary election together with the remainder of the nation’s polls in Might this yr, however final October, the Bangsamoro Parliament requested Congress for an additional three-year extension.
Congress denied that request. On February 4, the bicameral convention committee set the BARMM’s first parliamentary election for October 13, 2025. The BTA’s mandate by presidential appointment is prolonged by four-and-a-half months, not three years.
And so the MILF, by way of its political get together, the United Bangsamoro Justice Occasion (UBJP), will but once more combat for management of the Bangsamoro, this time by way of an election. The previous rebels who’ve turn into statesmen should additional evolve into politicians.
Competing with the MILF are a number of the area’s longtime political dynasties, who’ve coalesced into the “BGC,” the BARMM Grand Coalition.
Though the MILF had hoped for at the very least a two-year extension to their appointment to make sure a “easy democratic transition,” Iqbal mentioned they’re conscious that their credibility dwindles as elections preserve getting pushed again.
“‘Yan ang sinasabi ng Presidente paulit-ulit — ‘Magazine-election na tayo para might legitimacy kayo,’” he mentioned. (That’s what the President has been saying time and again — “Maintain elections already so you could have legitimacy.”)
Exit settlement
Discounting what is likely to be a pure urge to remain in energy, the MILF wants to stay because the BARMM’s governors if they’re to see by way of the total execution of the peace settlement.
In some unspecified time in the future, the BARMM authorities and the nationwide authorities are to signal an exit settlement, to suggest that the peace settlement’s guarantees are fulfilled, and the BARMM has totally transitioned into normalcy. The settlement requires that an elected BARMM authorities, not the appointed BTA, be the one to signal this exit settlement.
However as Shariff, the MILF camp commander, and even Iqbal admitted, many objects on the settlement have but to be delivered. In addition to the decommissioning of remaining BIAF troopers and the supply of their socio-economic packages, Iqbal mentioned the disbandment of personal armed teams — often political clans’ mercenaries — and the incorporation of MILF members into the nationwide police and navy stay hanging.
Who higher to insist on the settlement’s stipulations than those who negotiated the settlement?
“Kahit sinong nandiyan, puwedeng pag-usapan [‘yung exit agreement], pero mas maigi na kami ang nandidiyan,” Iqbal mentioned, referring to the MILF. (Whoever sits in energy can focus on the exit settlement, however it’s higher if we’re those there.)
Not that they’d insist on 100% supply of the settlement, Iqbal mentioned, which is unimaginable and would maintain the BARMM hostage in the event that they did. The MILF can be pleased with a “substantial” achievement of the deal’s objects.
“Pero papaano kami mapupunta diyan? Siyempre, eleksiyon ‘yan. Tatrabahuin namin. Mananalo kami eh, ‘di ba? Kasi mas maganda kung nandoon kami sa energy,” he mentioned. (However how will we get there? In fact, that’s an election. We’ll work it out. We’ll win, proper? As a result of it’s higher if we’re in energy.)
Election marketing campaign posters are actually throughout Cotabato Metropolis and elsewhere within the Bangsamoro. The UBJP’s tarpaulin posters characteristic MILF Chairman Ebrahim, Iqbal, and different nominees. Because it’s a parliamentary system, voters will elect events, not individuals. If the UBJP wins the vast majority of seats, then Ebrahim will get a shot at staying on as chief minister.
Simply as ubiquitous are posters of the BGC. Sulu Governor Abdusakur Tan would have been a robust contender for chief minister, however the Supreme Court docket just lately dominated to exclude his province from the BARMM. Different surnames on this alliance embrace Adiong, Hataman, and Mangudadatu.
“We’re simply prepared,” Iqbal mentioned. “We’re ready to win or to lose, as a result of it’s an election. If we lose, what can we do?”
Quieter now
Sarah Makamad, the vegetable vendor from Camp Darapanan, couldn’t inform the years however remembered all the time needing to evacuate throughout the older Marcos’ regime, which was from 1965 to 1986.
“Nung namatay si Marcos (senior), nasa bakwit pa kami,” she mentioned. “Bakwit” has turn into the native shorthand for “evacuee”. (When Marcos Sr. died, we had been nonetheless in evacuation.)
That was in 1988; many extra years of conflict lay forward. Life for Makamad was a traumatic succession of uprooting, settling, then uprooting once more, to remain out of the crossfire. None of her kids completed faculty; all of them received married younger, and he or she authorised of it.
“Mas mabuti ang mag-asawa kaysa mag-aral,” she mentioned, chuckling. Higher to get married than to review. Within the war-torn economic system of her youthful years, what was there to review for?
Makamad and her household are nonetheless poor. Though she didn’t have numerous reward for this new autonomy, she acknowledged that, at the very least, they will now keep put. She couldn’t recall the final time she evacuated — it’s been some time because the final skirmish in Darapanan.
“Mas tahimik na ngayon (It’s quieter now),” she mentioned.
Requested whether or not the MILF, because the BARMM’s governors, has uplifted folks’s lives, Iqbal replied, “From 57% poverty incidence to only 23%.”
The file bears him out: a Unicef examine put poverty incidence within the area at 61.3% in 2018, a yr earlier than the BARMM’s institution. That very same yr, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) rated poverty within the BARMM at 52%. In 2023, the PSA’s determine was all the way down to 23.5%.
Iqbal talked about new street networks, public infrastructure, and college campuses being inaugurated.
“It’s widespread information, in accordance with worldwide analysis, {that a} devastated area would require at the very least 10 years to rehabilitate and develop,” he mentioned.
“Six years pa lang kami. COVID took away two years. Regardless of that, nakikita na talaga ‘yung pagbabago dito.” (We’ve solely been in energy for six years. COVID took away two years. Regardless of that, the adjustments listed here are evident.)
True mujahideen
However the query is, are the Moro folks, in whose identify the MILF, the MNLF, and different armed teams waged conflict in opposition to the federal government, happy with the outcomes of the peace course of?
“My private commentary is that there are some who’re dissatisfied with the help they’ve obtained,” Garex Shariff, the operations commander at Camp Darapanan, mentioned in Filipino, referring to decommissioned BIAF troopers.
Pondering that decommissioning meant abandoning their wrestle — their jihad — many BIAF troopers didn’t wish to lay down arms, Shariff mentioned. However when the MILF leaders made them perceive that it was a part of the peace course of, they relented.
“Dahil sa kautusan ng Allah na kailangan sumunod tayo sa chief, ay nanu-neutralize ‘yung sentimyento ng bawat mujahideen na nadecommission.” (Due to Allah’s commandment that we should obey our chief, the feelings of each decommissioned mujahideen are neutralized.)
Mujahideen. Fighters of the Islamic trigger. Holy warriors.
What’s vital to them, mentioned Shariff, is that “ethical governance” now prevails. “Ethical governance” means each official motion is knowledgeable by the concern of Allah. This, he mentioned, is the Moro wrestle’s highest aspiration.
“Happy or not, his obedience to Allah stays,” Shariff mentioned in Filipino. And for BIAF troopers, energetic or decommissioned, this transcendental God’s earthly proxies are the leaders of the MILF.
“That’s the mark of true mujahideen — obedience to their chief’s choices.” – Rappler.com
This reporting was made attainable by MindaNews, the Mindanao Institute of Journalism, and Media Influence Philippines.
