CAMP DARAPANAN, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao: The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Central Committee has chosen its chairman—Al Haj Murad Ebrahim — to sit as chief minister of the transition government of the proposed Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

The BARMM will replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).





A consensus was reached to make Murad the Bangsamoro chief minister during a meeting on Tuesday by members of the MILF’s Central Committee and senior commanders from across Mindanao here in this MILF main camp.

Murad is the revolutionary figurehead of the MILF’s Central Committee, whose members include Ghazali Jaafar of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission and Mohagher Iqbal, chairman of the MILF peace implementing panel.

He has been chairman of the MILF since 2003, after the MILF’s founder, Salamat Hashim, died of heart failure.

The Bangsamoro Organic Law that lawmakers approved in July was premised on two peace agreements between the government and the MILF–the 2013 Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro and the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro.

The two agreements were products of 19 years of peace talks between the Philippine government and the MILF.

The transition from the ARMM to the Bangsamoro government is expected to commence in January 2019.

Under the Bangsamoro Organic Law, a Bangsamoro Transition Authority will act as an interim government during the transition period between ratification by plebiscite and the first elections in the new region.

“The Moro Islamic Liberation Front shall lead the Bangsamoro Transition Authority, without prejudice to the participation of the Moro National Liberation Front [MNLF] in its membership,” the law says.

Headed by Nur Misuari, the MNLF is another Muslim group fighting for an autonomous Islamic homeland in southern Mindanao.

President Rodrigo Duterte will appoint the 80 members of the transition authority.