Government Peace Panel Chair Pick in Final Vetting as MILF Talks Stall

The Empty Panel Seat

The Government Peace Implementing Panel carries out the state's commitments under the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, signed in 2014. Its chair post fell vacant in February when retired general Cesar Yano, who had held the role since 2023, resigned.

With no government chair in place, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front says it has no partner to engage across the table. Its own peace panel, led by Mohagher Iqbal, has been left without a counterpart, and formal talks have stalled for months.

The 2014 agreement ended decades of fighting between the government and the MILF and led to the creation of the Bangsamoro region in 2019, which replaced an earlier autonomous area.

Why the Decommissioning Stopped

Under the peace deal, MILF fighters turn in weapons and return to civilian life in stages, a process called decommissioning. Earlier phases had already retired 26,145 combatants and 4,625 weapons, about two thirds of the targets of 40,000 fighters and 7,200 weapons.

The final phase, which covers the remaining fighters, has been on hold since the MILF suspended it in 2025. That last round would cover roughly 14,000 combatants and about 2,450 weapons, and the front has tied its return to the government keeping its side of the bargain.

Weapons that are handed over are stored under the watch of an independent body that oversees the process, and fighters who take part are promised jobs, cash aid, and schooling to help them start over.

What Normalization Involves

Decommissioning is one part of a wider track the two sides call normalization, set out in an annex signed in January 2014. The track also covers policing, aid for former fighters, transitional justice, and the turning of old MILF camps into normal towns.

Six camps were named for this shift, among them Camp Abubakar and Camp Bilal, and more than P4 billion in public money has gone into roads, water, and services there since a 2021 plan. Progress across all of these depends on a working peace panel on the government side.

The plan also set up joint teams of police, soldiers, and MILF members to keep the peace in former conflict zones, and it promised amnesty for fighters and the disbanding of private armed groups.

Pressure to Fill the Post

Sarmiento took over the peace office in April, and advocates have pressed Malacanang to name a panel chair quickly, warning that the agreement stalls without one. He said the administration remains committed to fully carrying out the deal and hopes the person chosen will accept.

The MILF, for its part, says it is not walking away. Iqbal said in late June that the front stands by the peace process and would not start any fighting, though it would defend itself if attacked.

Sarmiento replaced Carlito Galvez Jr., who had led peace efforts under an earlier arrangement.

Stakes Before the Election

The vetting comes as the Bangsamoro region prepares for its first regular parliamentary election on September 14, set by a law passed this year. The vote was pushed back twice before, from 2022 and again from 2025.

The parliament, which has 80 seats, will be filled by a mix of members. Forty seats go to political parties in proportion to their votes, 32 to district representatives, and eight to reserved groups, including Indigenous peoples who are not Moro, settler communities, women, youth, traditional leaders, and religious scholars.

Until the vote, the region is run by a transition authority led by Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim, the MILF chairman better known as Al Haj Murad. The election will hand power to the region's first elected parliament.

Supporters of the peace process say the vacant panel seat has slowed commitments at a sensitive time, and that filling it before the vote would steady the transition.