25/09/2026
Opening Statement of Mohagher M. Iqbal, Chairman, M**F Peace Implementing Panel
Meeting of the GPH-M**F Peace Implementing Panels
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
25 September 2026
Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.
Excellency Tan Sri Zulkifli Zainal Abidin, our esteemed Malaysian Facilitator; Honorable Secretary Mel Senen Sarmiento, Chairman of the GPH Peace Implementing Panel; distinguished members of the GPH and M**F Panels; members of the International Contact Group and the Third Party Monitoring Team; Members of the GPH and M**F Secretariats; friends and partners in peace.
Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh!
Alhamdulillah, we are back at this table.
We come to Kuala Lumpur with renewed confidence. We do not meet to reopen what we settled. We meet to resume and complete the work we signed up for. The Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) is not unfinished business that we revisit when convenient. It is a solemn commitment that both Parties made to the Bangsamoro people and to each other, and the M**F is eager to see it through.
The work before us is clear. Decommissioning must move forward (in due measure) to its conclusion. The camps must be transformed into productive and peaceful communities. Private armed groups must be dismantled. Transitional justice must give our people a reckoning with the past so they can build a future. These are not M**F demands. They are our common obligations under the CAB.
We take note, with appreciation, of the continuing resolve of the Government of the Philippines to faithfully implement the Agreement. That shared belief is our most important asset. Let us leave this meeting not only with renewed commitment, but with concrete steps, clear timelines, and the political will to meet them. The combatants who decommissioned their arms, and the families who waited with them, have been patient. They deserve to see the promise of normalization fulfilled in their lifetime.
Allow me also to express our deep gratitude to the Government and People of Malaysia. Since 2001, Malaysia has journeyed with us through ceasefires, deadlocks, and breakdowns of talks. Malaysia hosted us when trust was high and when trust was at its ebb. It never closed its door. On behalf of the M**F, I thank the Government of Malaysia, through its Facilitator, for its patience, wisdom, and quiet persistence. Peace processes are not sustained by speeches. They are sustained by people who keep showing up. Malaysia keeps showing up.
We also thank the National Government for holding the first Bangsamoro parliamentary elections on 14 September 2026, in keeping with its commitment under the CAB. To Secretary Mel Sarmiento and the OPAPRU team, thank you for being present on election day and for standing up for the primacy of the peace process.
We cannot, however, pass over what happened on that day in silence. The elections were marred by serious irregularities, including pre-shaded ballots and widespread vote buying, and by violence that left five people dead and forty-eight wounded. We ask the National Government to investigate, identify, and prosecute those responsible, regardless of affiliation. Impunity is the enemy of peace. The integrity of our elections and the integrity of this process are bound together.
Despite everything, the United Bangsamoro Justice Party won 30 seats in the Bangsamoro Parliament. We will take up these seats with humility and serve every Moro, including those who did not vote for us.
However, the peace process did not end with the election of Parliament members. The most immediate task now — in fact, a very challenging one — is to form the government of the day. For this reason, it is most desired that whoever sits as head of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) can also act, in a way, as interlocutor between the parties in the peace process especially the M**F. After all, the two realms are interconnected.
Excellency Tan Sri, Honorable Secretary Sarmiento, distinguished colleagues, the road ahead is still long. But we have walked more perilous roads together, and we have never walked them alone.
Let us continue to persevere and work together, faithfully and comprehensively. Insha Allah, in the end, we will triumph and finish what we started. “Victory belongs to those who persevere,” says the Qur’an.
Wabillahi taufiq wal hidaya! Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh!
