MNLF, BARMM execs want Galvez back as presidential peace adviser

COTABATO CITY — Leaders of the Moro National Liberation Front, including officials from Bangsamoro regional agencies, have expressed concern over potential setbacks in the government’s peace process with southern communities should President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. appoint a new peace, unity and reconciliation adviser with limited understanding of the Mindanao secessionist issue.

Bangsamoro Labor and Employment Minister Muslimin Sema, who also chairs the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), told reporters on Thursday that they are urging Marcos to reappoint retired Army officer Carlito Galvez Jr. as presidential peace adviser, citing his deep knowledge of the government’s separate peace agreements with both the MNLF and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

The MNLF and the MILF are overseeing the operations of several ministries in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Both fronts also have representatives in BARMM's 80-seat regional parliament. 

Galvez, who graduated from the Philippine Military Academy in 1985, had complied with the president’s directive for all members of his cabinet to resign for him to have leeway in initiating a revamp.

Galvez had served as commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division covering Central Mindanao and as chief of the Western Mindanao Command before he retired from the military service. 

“We are appealing to the President to reappoint him. Only a soldier who had experienced the difficult, painful consequences of armed conflicts in Southern Mindanao would know what are the best solutions to the nagging security issues in the region,” Sema said, referring to Galvez.

MNLF officials in Cotabato, South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani provinces, in the island province of Basilan and BARMM's capital, Cotabato City, were quoted in radio reports on Thursday as saying that Galvez was a frequent visitor of their camps, now recognized as peace zones by the police and military, for dialogues about the joint peace and security efforts in the local communities of their organization and the government.

“He had extensive military engagements in Mindanao as a soldier. That makes him a good presidential adviser on peace, reconciliation and unity,” Sema said.

In an informal random survey by reporters in Cotabato City, 36 of 38 ranking officials in different offices in the Bangsamoro government and members of the region’s parliament had confirmed that they are in favor of the reappointment of Galvez by President Marcos.