UNHCR welcomes passing of Bangsamoro Organic Law in the Philippines

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, welcomes the passing of the Bangsamoro Organic Law, seen as an important step towards lasting peace in Muslim Mindanao in the southern Philippines.

The law is the culmination of peace talks negotiating an end to decades of armed conflict in Mindanao. For years, the long struggle for the Bangsamoro has resulted in large scale and frequent displacement of hundreds of thousands of people in central and western Mindanao, most recently in 2015 and 2008.

UNHCR fully supports the efforts of the Government of the Philippines and current Bangsamoro actors to address displacement and its causes especially in the fragile border regions with focus on preventative measures. Our paramount consideration is the large number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) displaced by armed conflict and those repeatedly displaced in Mindanao.

Noketh Nue, a B’laan woman, performs a song of gratitude using her boat lute (faglung) during a UNHCR protection monitoring visit in their community in Elbebe, Datu Paglas, Maguindanao. The community was a recipient of a quick impact project implemented by UNHCR. (©UNHCR/A. Gonzales)

UNHCR will assist in the normalization process especially with regard to addressing the needs of IDPs and ensuring their enhanced participation in planning and development in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region.

UNHCR will continue its partnership with the Government, NGOs, and civil society with focus on activities in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region to support the transitional peace process and continue close collaboration with Government and humanitarian actors in addressing displacement related to armed conflict and natural disasters across Mindanao.

As of 9 July, there are 254,618 individuals displaced in Mindanao due to armed conflict, crime and violence, and natural disasters. Majority of them live in protracted displacement and are left more vulnerable after every cycle of displacement.

For several decades, the Moros, the Christians, and the Lumads of Brgy. Elbebe and Brgy. Columbio in Maguindanao endured a long-standing land conflict. Through the dialogues  UNHCR facilitated, the community members now live in harmony. (©UNHCR/A. Ongcal)

Background

The call for a separate state for the Moro people (an ethnolinguistic Muslim community of 13 tribes mainly located in central and western Mindanao) has been a major point of conflict over the past four decades. The struggle for a separate homeland Bangsamoro is rooted in the notion of self-determination and desire for Moros to govern themselves in accordance with their culture and identity. Various Moro liberation movements have been active since the late 1960s and have engaged in a protracted armed conflict against State forces.

The Bangsamoro Organic Law was signed on 26 July 2018. Its ratification comes a decade after the Government of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which leads the call for a separate Bangsamoro entity, signed the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) on 5 August 2008. The MOA-AD was later declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court and led to biggest displacement to date in Mindanao. The peace process faced another setback in 2015 after the Mamasapano incident and the subsequent declaration of an all-out offensive and law enforcement operation against the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters which in turn uprooted over 148,000 individuals.