BTA to try to get Islamic State-inspired groups to lay down arms

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The Bangsamoro Transition Authority will reach out to local Islamic State-inspired militants to convince them to return to the fold of law.

The BTA, where Al Hajj Murad Ebrahim is interim chief minister, is now overseeing the transition from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao to the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, or BARMM.

“We shall reach out and tell them that governance is the better path to peace and development in the BARMM,” Ebrahim said late Tuesday, after the ARMM government was turned over to him by ARMM Regional Gov. Mujiv Hataman.

Hataman, who was at the helm of the ARMM government since 2012, declined to join the MILF-led transitory group to focus on local peace and security programs in Basilan, which he is running to represent at the House and where 235 former Abu Sayyaf bandits are in a reintegration program.

Ebrahim said the presence of small Islamic State-inspired groups in the BARMM will spur the BTA to work hard for socio-economic growth and the restoration of normalcy in conflict-stricken areas in the region.

Ebrahim is chairman of the MILF’s central committee, whose members were also appointed as BTA members by President Rodrigo Duterte.

"We need to show proof. We can use diplomacy and if we don’t succeed, we can let the security entities come in but there is always a room for peaceful efforts," said Ebrahim, appointed chief minister of BARMM.

The BTA will function as BARMM’s caretaker pending the election of its first set of pioneering elected officials in 2022.

MNLF 'rumblings'

The transition comes amid rumblings from members of factions of the Moro National Liberation Front, which entered into a peace deal with the government in 1996. Peace negotiations with the MNLF led to the creation of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Firdausi Abbas, recognized as sultan of Lanao and a vice chairman of the MNLF, said in an interview on ANC Wednesday morning that elections should be held in the new region within six months. He said the three years before the elections in 2022 "is a long time, and without the mandate of the people, that is tyrannical."

Under the Bangsamoro Organic Law, which was ratified in plebiscites on January 21 and February 6, the BTA will serve as the interim government of the BARMM until elections are held. The BTA, which is made up of nominees from the MILF and representatives of other sectors, is appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte.

He said the BTA should "not have a controlling majority [by the MILF] and that other sectors of the Bangsamoro, all the sectors as it is so contained in the Bangsamoro Organic Law will be properly represented."

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front has 41 of 80 seats in the BTA, an arrangement that Abbas said made the body "an extension of the Central Committee of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front."

The BOL, initially titled the Bangsamoro Basic Law, is the product of peace negotiations between the government and the MILF that led to the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro.

The Palace on Tuesday echoed the statements of Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Carlito Galvez Jr. that there is equitable distribution of posts at the BTA.

"Well for one, if the MNLF was complaining about it, [MNLF founding chairman Nur Misuari] did not mention it. Number Two, per General Galvez, there has been equitable distribution or representation on that authority," Panelo said.

In a speech last Monday, Duterte mentioned some “rumblings” within the ranks of the MNLF on the composition of the BTA.

“There are rumblings about the MNLF. I told them come and join, but Misuari is gnawing out and I have ordered the military and police (to allow him), he will come back,” he said.

Misuari had opposed the BOL and urged its rejection at the plebiscite. The 2013 siege of Zamboanga City by members of his MNLF faction is said to have been an attempt to forestall the signing of the 2014 peace deal with the MILF.

BARMM to continue ARMM's peace programs

Ebrahim said he will help sustain the peace efforts started by Hataman who relied on humanitarian interventions and infrastructure programs to entice Abu Sayyaf members in Basilan to bolt out and organize themselves into cooperatives now engaged in entrepreneurial activities while being assimilated into mainstream society.

BARMM’s newly-designated Local Government minister, lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo, told reporters Tuesday night he will try his best to capacitate local government units for more to qualify for the 2019 Seal of Good Local Governance award from the central office of the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

Twenty three LGUs, among them the city government of Lamitan, the new capital of Basilan, received the SGLG in 2018 for good governance and sound implementation of domestic socio-economic and security programs.

Not a single LGU under the now defunct ARMM received an SGLG award during the time of past regional governors.

Sinarimbo, who is close to the Christian communities in central Mindanao, said good governance is essential to BARMM’s peace and security initiatives.

He said his office can ask help from the police and the military to monitor the presence of local chief executives and provincial officials in their offices to address absenteeism in their ranks.

“We are under martial law so we can easily ask help from authorities to help us check if they are indeed functioning as local chief executives,” Sinarimbo said.

The newly-established BARMM covers all of the 118 towns in ARMM’s five provinces — Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

Sinarimbo said the more than 60 barangays in North Cotabato whose residents voted for inclusion of their communities into the BARMM during a separate plebiscite shall temporarily be managed by an administrator.

“We still have to study and do consultations from among stakeholders on how to group these barangays together under a local government unit perhaps under one congressional district.” Sinarimbo said.