‘Don’t think about it!’

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. fired a warning salvo on Monday at those who “preach the ideology of dismemberment” and are thinking of disrupting the first parliamentary elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

They would be dealt with accordingly, said the President in his speech at the commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) in Maguindanao.

“As we defend the gains that we have achieved, we will be vigilant against the enemies of peace. We will bear the full force of the state against terrorist elements, and those who preach the discarded and debunked ideology of dismemberment. The people will reject your selfish agenda,” Marcos said.

The warning followed recent talk of a separate Mindanao broached by former president Rodrigo Duterte and supporters like Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez.

But the region’s officials were not supportive of secession for which Alvarez issued an apology and Duterte said he was just “joking.”

Though Marcos did not address Duterte directly in most of his speeches, the President declared in February that any attempts to have Mindanao secede from the Philippines would be quashed.

Then President Benigno Aquino III signed the CAB in 2014. The peace accord resulted in the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) giving up its weapons and disbanding its armed wing in exchange for the creation of an autonomous Bangsamoro nation.

Interim parliament

The Bangsamoro Organic Law, which the Duterte administration passed in 2018, was to make way for an interim parliament whose members were to be elected in 2022. Absent the Bangsamoro electoral code and due to the coronavirus pandemic, that parliamentary poll in the BARMM was postponed until next year.

In his speech, Marcos promised the locals an “honest, orderly, and credible conduct of the electoral process.”

“Let this also serve as a warning to those who may plan to threaten and derail this upcoming election. Don’t think about that anymore because your enemy is the government,” he said.

“Instead, channel your energies to helping build productive and thriving communities where citizens are offered wide livelihood opportunities and healthy living spaces,” he added.

Marcos said the CAB is “a testament to our collective vision for sustainable progress and harmony, not only within the Bangsamoro region and Mindanao but throughout the archipelago.”

He said he believed that the parties and the people who would carry out the peace accord should determine its quality.

The Bangsamoro Electoral Code, approved by the Bangsamoro Transition Authority in March 2023, would allow democratic participation in local and regional elections.

It also cleared the path for the formation of political parties with members from the Ulama, traditional leaders, women, youth, and indigenous peoples. The Covid-19 pandemic forced a postponement of the Bangsamoro region’s first-ever election which was scheduled for May 2022.

Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez said that although some civil society groups have demanded a further three-year extension for the Bangsamoro Transition Authority because of alleged unfulfilled CAB provisions, Marcos was not amenable to the proposal.