MNLF leaders in BARMM saddened by Ermita’s demise
COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Leaders of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in the Bangsamoro region are mourning the passing of former Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, whom they described as their “bridge” to the national government during the presidency of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
The 90-year-old Ermita passed away on Saturday, October 18, according to his family.
“He was a friend of the Moro National Liberation Front. Through him, there was easy access for us to national government officials when he was executive secretary under the Office of the President,” said Muslimin Sema, Bangsamoro labor and employment minister and chairman of the MNLF central committee, on Tuesday, October 21.
Sema recalled Ermita as approachable and attentive to issues affecting MNLF communities that were brought to his attention during his time as executive secretary in Malacañang and in his brief tenures as presidential peace adviser and acting defense secretary.
Sema, who served as mayor of Cotabato City — now the capital of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) — during Ermita’s term, described him as “a very smiling person” who acted promptly on their concerns, particularly those involving the MNLF’s peace and development agenda with the national government.
Sema was referring to the MNLF’s Sept. 2, 1996 peace agreement with the national government, brokered by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), a bloc of more than 60 Muslim states, including petroleum-exporting nations in the Middle East and North Africa.
Hatimil Hassan, the MNLF’s representative in the 80-seat Bangsamoro Parliament, said they remember Ermita as a national government official who often reached out to the front when seeking support for Malacañang’s peace and security initiatives in Moro areas in Southern Mindanao.
“He was a non-Moro who actively supported, in various capacities, the national government’s peace overtures with the Moro National Liberation Front,” Hassan said.
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