MILF cites non-Moro governor’s support to peace process

COTABATO CITY — The Moro Islamic Liberation Front on Wednesday awarded a non-Muslim governor of a province outside of the Bangsamoro region a special citation for supporting the peace overture between the MILF and Malacañang since its inception in 1997.

Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza received the award from two senior MILF officials, Bangsamoro Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim and Regional Education Minister Muhaquer Iqbal, during Wednesday’s commemoration in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao del Norte of the 10th anniversary of the crafting of the final compact between the front and Malacañang, the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro or CAB.

Mendoza, presiding chairperson of the multi-sector and inter-agency Regional Development Council 12, operating under the auspices of the National Economic Development Authority 12, has been supporting the government-MILF peace overture since it started on Jan. 7, 1997.

“I’m thankful for this award. It is a strong advocacy for me to be of help, in my little ways, in addressing the Mindanao Moro issue. I have seen the devastation caused by armed conflicts in different towns in Cotabato province in the past decades. Let us together nurture the gains of the Mindanao peace process,” Mendoza told reporters via text message on Thursday.

Ebrahim, who presided over Wednesday’s activity in Camp Darapanan in Sultan Kudarat, is chairman of the MILF’s central committee and an appointed figurehead of the 80-member regional parliament of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

Regional officials, representatives of the Armed Forces, the Philippine National Police, peace advocates, foreign dignitaries, Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity Carlito Galvez Jr. and other officials under the office of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. attended the event.

The national government and the MILF forged in Malacañang the CAB on March 27, 2014, a product of two decades of tedious negotiations that paved the way for the replacement, via a plebiscite in early 2019, of the then 27-year Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao with a more empowered BARMM.

BARMM officials and representatives of the MILF and the Moro