Dignitaries, legislators, and peace advocates trooped to the old Senate Session Hall at the National Museum of Fine Arts recently for the launch of Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri’s The Road to Peace: Crafting the Bangsamoro Organic Law.

In vivid pictures and evocative text, the coffee table book chronicles the legislative journey, both challenging and rewarding, behind what is purported as one of the Philippines’ most significant legal milestones—the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL).

The launch was a victory jump not only for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) and the rest of Mindanao, but for all of the Philippines, as Sen. Zubiri said in his speech. It details everything that led to the enactment of BOL in 2018, laying down the foundation for the establishment of BARMM, which grants the region greater autonomy and, by so doing, allowing the region to address long-standing issues of governance, economic disparity, and armed conflict. The law, according to Sen. Zubiri’s team, “stemmed from the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a peace pact heralded as a cornerstone in the country’s efforts to end decades of strife and war.”

It is a dream come true in every way, even for some of us, clueless Filipinos like me, who grew up estranged from our brethren not only in the five provinces—Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi—and the three cities, Lamitan, Marawi, and Cotabato, which currently make up BARMM, but also in the rest of Mindanao. I believe I was first made aware of Mindanao through an OPM (Original Pilipino Music) hit “Ang Bayan Kong Sinilangan” by Pinoy folk rock band Asin, originally Salt of the Earth. Even as a child, I found the song piercing and poignant, with lines like “Ako’y isinilang sa isang bayan ng Cotabato, kasing gulo ng tao, kasing gulo ng mundo (I was born in a town in Cotabato, as chaotic as people, as chaotic as the world)...”

“The BOL is very important not only for the Bangsamoro region but also for the entire Philippines,” said Zubiri in Filipino. “It is proof that if the desire is for peace and development, nothing is impossible for everyone who strives for it).”

Zubiri is himself from Mindanao. His mother, Vicki Fernandez-Zubiri of Albay, was raised in Bukidnon. “I have seen firsthand the impact of conflict on our communities. The Bangsamoro Organic Law has become the foundation for rebuilding lives and fostering hope,” he said, citing his experience visiting Marawi after the 2017 siege. “When I arrived in Marawi after the siege, I felt a strong need for a long-term solution. The assistance we provide cannot be just temporary.”

To the world, the BOL has become a model for conflict resolution. Many countries, according to Zubiri, are now studying the law’s framework for their own peacebuilding efforts.

“The success of the Bangsamoro region is proof that political solutions can work,” he said. “It is our gift not just to Mindanao but to the world.”