Marcos appoints Sarmiento to lead Bangsamoro peace panel

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has designated Presidential Peace Adviser Secretary Mel Senen Sarmiento as the new chair of the government’s Peace Implementing Panel (GPH-PIP) in the Bangsamoro peace process, Malacañang announced Wednesday.

Sarmiento is the sixth PIP chair of the government to engage with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in implementing the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB).

He replaces retired military general Cesar Yano, who resigned in February.

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Sarmiento is the first head of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity to chair the GPH-PIP. In the past, the President appointed undersecretaries, particularly the Opapru chief’s deputy, to lead the panel.

The MILF has declared a “temporary pause” on all substantive peace process engagements since March until a “full-fledged chairman” of the GPH-PIP is appointed.

Datu Tokz Bin Abdulrahman, spokesperson for the newly formed Move for Peace Now!, earlier said appointing a GPH-PIP chair is necessary to sustain engagement with the MILF and advance the Bangsamoro peace process.

He said that without a government panel chair, the implementation of the CAB “hangs in the balance,” as MILF peace panel chair Mohagher Iqbal has no official counterpart to engage with.

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In its February editorial, the MILF called out the government over the delay in appointing Yano’s successor as chair of the GPH-PIP.

“This is not an administrative vacancy. It is a structural rupture at the heart of the peace process. The MILF finds itself without a dialogue partner. The CAB, in practical terms, is in a state of suspension,” it said.

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The GPH and the MILF signed the CAB in 2014 after 17 years of peace negotiations.

The PIPs were created two years later, in 2016, to implement the CAB, which paved the way for the creation of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in 2019 following the ratification of Republic Act No. 11054, or the Bangsamoro Organic Law.

Malacañang’s announcement of a new GPH-PIP chair comes two months before the long-delayed first Bangsamoro parliamentary elections on Sept. 14 and a day before the start of the election period, which will last until Sept. 29.

Up for election are 80 members of the Bangsamoro Parliament, composed of 40 party representatives, 32 district representatives, and eight sectoral representatives, who will replace the Bangsamoro Transition Authority.

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The elected members of Parliament will take their oath on Oct. 30 and serve until June 30, 2031. /mcm