DAVAO CITY – The peace implementing panels of the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on Tuesday, Aug. 4, reaffirmed to implement remaining shared commitments under the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB).

This signifies the lifting of the temporary pause in the engagement of both parties as both panels signed a joint statement after over two hours of closed-door meeting here.

MILF chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim last March unilaterally declared a temporary pause in all engagements under the Bangsamoro peace process until a full-fledged chairman of the peace implementing panel (PIP) is appointed.

On Tuesday, Presidential Peace Adviser and PIP chair Mel Senen Sarmiento and MILF PIP chief Mohagher Iqbal signed a Declaration of Continuity of the Partnership in the implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, directing the peace process mechanisms to resume their joint operations and continue to perform their functions.

Both panels agreed to conduct a special meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, tentatively scheduled on Sept. 25, where the Technical Working Group on the Roadmap Development for the Implementation of the CAB has been directed to prepare the presentation of its Terms and Reference (TOR) to the panels during the special meeting.

Both panels reaffirmed their pledges to complete remaining commitments under the normalization track.

In their Declaration of Continuity, the government and MILF PIPs acknowledged the substantial gains achieved in the implementation of the CAB 12 years after its signing, adding that important commitments remain to be completed.

They also emphasized that these commitments shall continue to be pursued jointly in a parallel and commensurate manner and in accordance with the CAB and its established implementation arrangements.

Among the crucial commitments that they need to continue was the decommissioning process which the MILF Central Committee suspended last July.

The MILF has not officially issued a statement if the suspension of decommissioning has been lifted following the meeting.

The MILF unilaterally suspended the decommissioning process of the remaining combatants of its armed wing the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF) until there is a substantial compliance by the government in the other tracks of normalization.

Iqbal was referring to the provision of socio-economic package as agreed upon by the government and MILF Peace Implementing Panels to at least 26,000 decommissioned combatants. Decommissioning of the MILF weapons and combatants is part of the normalization process.

They also reaffirmed the peace process mechanisms and their roles in fully implementing the CAB and helping secure positive peace.

Among the mechanisms listed in the declaration are Third Party Facilitator and/or Special Adviser (Malaysia); International Contact Group (ICG), Third Party Monitoring Team (TPMT), Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH), Ad Hoc Joint Action Group (AHJAG); Joint Normalization Committee (JNC), including the Joint Peace and Security Committee (JPSC) and the Joint Peace and Security Teams (JPSTs); Independent Decommissioning Body (IDB), Task Force for Decommissioned Combatants and their Communities (TFDCC), Joint Task Forces on Camps Transformation (JTFCT), Technical Working Group on Transitional Justice and Reconciliation (TWGTJR), Bangsamoro Normalization Trust Fund (BNTF), Joint Communications Committee (JCC), and International Monitoring Team (IMT), subject to further panels discussion.

With over a month before the first regular Bangsamoro parliamentary elections on Sept. 14, both panels also agreed that the implementation of the CAB shall continue and ensure that these mechanisms perform their essential functions.

This is in anticipation of the establishment of the regular Bangsamoro government to fulfill the political track by Oct. 30.

In his opening statement, Sarmiento said the durability of the CAB will not be measured simply by the passage of time.

“It will be measured by whether our institutions continue to function, whether our mechanisms continue to resolve problems, whether the trust and partnership we have built continue to grow stronger, and whether our communities continue to experience the real and lasting benefits of peace despite political transitions and implementation challenges,” he said.

Sarmiento, who was appointed as government’s PIP on July 15, assured that the government will fulfill what they have promised, strengthen what they have built together, and ensure that this Agreement continues to bring hope, opportunity, and a better future for every Bangsamoro community.

Iqbal reiterated that CAB is a binding agreement meant to be implemented in full.

“Peace in the Bangsamoro does not come from documents, ceremonies, or from elections held while the harder parts of the settlement are left undone. Peace comes from doing what we agreed: Decommission arms, dismantle private armed groups, develop the camps, deliver transitional justice, and build

institutions that outlast any administration,” said Iqbal, who led the MILF peace negotiating panel from 2003 to 2014 and the MILF PIP from 2016.

The panels, he added, are meeting again not to reopen what was settled, but to resume the work they signed up for.

The meeting was a resumption of obligation. “But the test is whether Filipino and Bangsamoro partners under the CAB, not adversaries across it can agree on next steps and carry them out together. That is how wars end: Both parties keeping their word, step by step, until the next generation inherits something better than the conflict we came from.”