COTABATO CITY — Leaders of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) are worried of a backlash in the government’s peace process with southern communities if President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. designates a new peace, unity and reconciliation adviser who has limited understanding of the Mindanao secessionist issue.

Bangsamoro Labor and Employment Minister Muslimin G. Sema, who is chairman of the MNLF, told reporters on Thursday that they want the President to reappoint the retired Army Officer Carlito G. Galvez, Jr. as his adviser on peace, reconciliation and unity, asserting that he has ample knowledge about the government’s separate peace accords with the MNLF and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

The MNLF and the MILF oversee the operations of several ministries in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). Both fronts also have representatives in BARMM’s 80-seat regional parliament.

Mr. Galvez complied with the President’s directive for all members of his cabinet to resign for him to have leeway in initiating a revamp.

He had served as commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division covering Central Mindanao and as chief of the Western Mindanao Command before he retired from military service.

“We are appealing to the President to reappoint him. Only a soldier who had experienced the difficult, painful consequences of armed conflicts in Southern Mindanao would know what are the best solutions to the nagging security issues in the region,”Mr. Sema said, referring to Mr. Galvez.

MNLF officials in Cotabato, South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani provinces, as well as in the island province of Basilan and in BARMM’s capital, Cotabato City, were quoted in radio reports on Thursday as saying that Mr. Galvez was a frequent visitor of their camps, now recognized as peace zones by the police and military.

“He had extensive military engagements in Mindanao as a soldier. That makes him a good presidential adviser on peace, reconciliation and unity,” Mr. Sema said. — John Felix M. Unson