Lawmaker asks Marcos to retain Lagdameo for Mindanao peace efforts

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — A bloc in the 80-seat Bangsamoro parliament had urged President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to retain his Mindanao-based special assistant who is, for them, Malacañang’s best conduit for services related to its peace overtures with southern Moro communities.

Senior Information officers in the Bangsamoro parliament told reporters on Wednesday, May 28, that a regional lawmaker, the lawyer Naguib  Sinarimbo, had asked President Marcos, via a privilege speech last Monday, May 26, not to replace the Special Assistant to the President Antonio Ernesto Lagdameo Jr., who had reportedly complied with his directive for all members of his cabinet to resign as a prelude to a revamp that had already started.

Lagdameo was appointed special assistant to the president (SAP) in 2022 and has since been supporting the peace and community development efforts of the Moro Islamic Liberation and the Moro National Liberation Front, according to Sinarimbo.

Sinarimbo had confirmed to reporters on Thursday via text message that he and officials of the Cotabato City chapter of his political party, the Serbisyong Inklusibo, Alyansang Progresibo, which has more than 600,000 documented members and supporters across the Bangsamoro region, are together in their bid for President Marcos to sustain his linkages with the Moro sectors via Lagdameo.

“SAP Lagdameo has strong connectivity with us in the Bangsamoro region. He has a good understanding of the deep intricacies and ramifications of the national government’s peace process for the Moro communities. We want him there in the Office of the President as its direct link to our communities,” Sinarimbo told reporters.

The Islamic theologian Abdulkarim Misuari, a senior representative of the MNLF to the 80-member Bangsamoro parliament, said Lagdameo has also been helping them sustain the gains of their Sept. 2, 1996 peace compact with the national government.

The parliament member Misuari is a son of Nur Misuari, who is founder of the MNLF. The front is helping leaders of the MILF manage some of the agencies under the regional government of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, most known by its acronym, BARMM, which was established in 2019.

He said his father, who had served as regional governor of the now defunct ARMM, is also wishing for Lagdameo's retention as a SAP.

The BARMM replaced in 2019 the then 27-year less empowered Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao based on two compacts between the government and the MILF, the 2012 Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro and, subsequently, the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro, which are products of 22 years of peace talks.

“He (Lagdameo) has been our steady and strong partner in sustaining the gains of the peace process between the government and the Moro National Liberation Front. Officials of the Moro National Liberation in the Bangsamoro parliament and the members of its central committee want the President to keep him as his special assistant," Misuari said.