MILF accepts massive defeat of bets for Lanao elective posts

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The United Bangsamoro Justice Party of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front is not bitter about the defeat of most of its candidates for local positions in Lanao del Sur during the May 12 elections, politicians belonging to a rival bloc said on Thursday, July 3.

Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr., reelected to a second term last May 12, and his constituent-mayors told reporters on Thursday that they appreciate the UBJP’s stand on the issue, relayed to them by Bangsamoro Chief Minister Abdulrauf Macacua during a symbolic gathering on Monday, June 30, in Marawi City of newly-elected local executives from across their province.

Macacua was a special guest to the event, capped off with the ceremonial assumption to office of Adiong, who is a senior official of the Serbisyong Inklusibo, Alyansang Progresibo Party, their vice governor, mayors, vice mayors and congressional representatives in the province, which has 39 towns.

Only eight from among UBJP’s 39 candidates for municipal mayors in the province were elected during the May 12 polls. The candidate of the UBJP for mayor of Lanao del Sur’s capital, Marawi City, was defeated by a candidate of SIAP, whose president is the reelected Lanao del Sur Vice Gov. Mohammad Rakiin Adiong. The two congressional representatives in the province, Zia Adiong and Yasser Balindong, were also reelected as SIAP candidates.

“We are glad that the chief minister of the Bangsamoro region, a senior official of the political party of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front no less, had said that with the elections over, we need to unite to hasten our peace and development efforts in the province,” Adiong said, referring to Macacua.

In a message while in Marawi City, Macacua, chief of the MILF’s Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces, pointed out that they do not harbor bitterness over the outcome of the elections in Lanao del Sur, which is the largest among the five provinces in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Adiong and other members of SIAP had also told reporters that they were elated too with the recognition by the influential Organization of Islamic Cooperation of the appointment last March by President Ferdinand Marcos of Macacua as BARMM's new chief minister. 

He succeeded then Ahod Ebrahim, chairman of the MILF’s central committee, who got to helm of the Bangsamoro government, also via a presidential appointment, immediately after BARMM was established in February 2019.

The OIC, composed of more than 60 Muslim countries, including petroleum-exporting states in the Middle East and North Africa, helped broker the Sept. 2, 1996 peace agreement between the Philippine government and the Moro National Liberation Front. It also supported extensively the 22-year peace talks between the Philippine government and the MILF, which led to the creation of BARMM in 2019, replacing the then 27-year less empowered Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.  

“Such gesture by the OIC is good for us all in the autonomous region and augurs well with the peace process between the government and the Moro communities in Mindanao,” Adiong said.

The OIC’s resolution recognizing Macacua as an appointed BARMM chief minister was approved and adopted during the June 21 to 22 Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of its member-states in Istanbul, Turkey, authenticated copies of which were dispatched early this week to media outfits in Mindanao by members of the 80-seat Bangsamoro regional parliament.