EDITORIAL - Spoilers

The latest rampage of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement or BIFM, according to security officials, is meant to sabotage the peace process with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. This is hardly unexpected from a group that broke away from the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front reportedly due to differences over the peace initiative.

The MILF acted in a similar manner when the government was negotiating a peace agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front. These days the MNLF is also acting up, in what many see as an effort to be consulted on the final peace deal with its breakaway faction. The peace pact signed by the government with the MNLF in 1996 has not yet been fully implemented, and now a new deal is being finalized with another group, covering the same area.

The fate of the original peace agreement shows that such deals need follow-through and coordinated support from government agencies as well as the private sector. Armed conflict in the Muslim south has raged for centuries, with ideological aspirations enjoying mass support due to extreme poverty, social injustice and bad governance. Law enforcement often fails to prevent the bloodbath arising from clan feuds.

Today the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which will be part of the envisioned Bangsamoro entity under the peace deal with the MILF, remains one of the least developed areas in the country. The ARMM is awash with guns. Its people are badly in need of sustainable livelihood opportunities. A peace deal can provide the region with a period of calm and optimism. The opportunity must be seized to make the people start enjoying the dividends of peace.

Addressing the roots of public support for insurgencies is the best way to marginalize spoilers such as the BIFM. The group must be dealt with decisively even as the peace process is pursued with the MILF. The government cannot keep negotiating another peace pact with any troublemaker that comes along after a formal peace deal has been signed.