Revamp of BTA shows cracks in MILF ranks
SEAT OF POWER The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Government Center in Cotabato City houses the offices of the members of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority. —Photo courtesy of the Bangsamoro Information Office
COTABATO CITY, BARMM, Philippines — Even before it can successfully conclude the implementation of a peace agreement it negotiated with the government for 17 years in a bid to end four decades of separatist rebellion in Mindanao, cracks are already showing in the ranks of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) due to a recent revamp in the leadership and membership of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA).
The BTA governs the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), which was created in 2019 based on the provisions of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), the landmark peace deal inked in 2014 thought to end a separatist rebellion started in 1972.
READ: MILF central committee rejects Macacua’s BARMM appointment
The CAB sought greater governance powers for Moro autonomy and greater control of fiscal resources through an annual block grant equivalent to 5 percent of the national government’s revenues.
Under the Bangsamoro Organic Law, which created the BARMM, the 80-member BTA has to be led by the MILF. When the transition body was constituted in 2019, the interim chief minister and 40 other members were nominated by the MILF, and 39 by the government.
Since 2019, MILF chief Ahod “Al Haj Murad” Ebrahim has been the BARMM’s interim chief minister and was expected to stay on until the BARMM elects its first set of Parliament representatives in October.
This changed when a revamp ensued on March 9 when Malacañang appointed Maguindanao del Norte acting Gov. Abdulraof Macacua to replace Ebrahim, who had apparently resigned on March 3, based on a letter made public by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation, and Unity.
The revamp came as the BARMM leadership was under scrutiny by the House of Representatives over alleged irregularities in the use of the autonomous government’s funds.
Some 76 other appointments for BTA members followed, including for Ebrahim. Macacua, who as chief of the MILF’s armed wing, the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF), then took his oath on March 12 before President Marcos in the Palace.
Questions
Before Macacua’s oathtaking, the MILF’s official portal run by its committee on information issued an editorial questioning the appointment of individuals to the BTA who were not endorsed by the MILF.
On the day Macacua was to take his oath, some 12 base commanders of the BIAF declared their support for him.
Last Saturday, the newly appointed BTA members took their oath before Macacua in a ceremony in Manila. Noticeably absent were Ebrahim and BARMM Education Minister Mohagher Iqbal, a senior member of the MILF central committee who used to be its chief peace negotiator.
On that same day, Ebrahim, who used to be the MILF’s military chief, convened six front commanders and 33 base commanders at Camp Darapanan, the group’s administrative headquarters in Maguindanao del Norte. The commanders issued a statement of support for Ebrahim “as chairman of the MILF, as commander in chief of the BIAF, and as Amirul Mujahideen (chief revolutionary).”
On Sunday, the MILF central committee issued a statement decrying the nonappointment into the BTA of six other MILF nominees.
“With only 35 nominees appointed, the MILF leadership in the BTA hangs in the balance, raising serious concerns about the integrity of the transition period and the commitment of the parties to the peace agreement,” read the statement, signed by Muhammad Ameen, secretary of the MILF central committee. —with a report from Richel V. Umel
