MNLF reacts to Sulu provincial leaders’ ban on MILF activities

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January 4, 2026 | 5:55pm

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) on Saturday, January 3, asked the Sangguniang Panlalawigan in Sulu to rescind its resolution last month disallowing activities of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) anywhere in the island province.

Officials of foreign-assisted peace-advocacy entities in Central Mindanao, which have projects complementing the peace and development initiatives of the regional government in Cotabato City of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, have expressed support for the MNLF's appeal to the Sulu Sangguniang Panlalawigan. 

The MNLF and the MILF have separate peace agreements with the national government, brokered by member-states of the influential Organization of Islamic Cooperation, a bloc of more than 50 Muslim nations, including petroleum-exporting states in the Middle East and in North Africa.

In a statement released on Saturday, MNLF officials, led by Bangsamoro Labor and Employment Minister Muslimin Sema, and members of the front occupying high positions in different BARMM agencies, unanimously said that they are hoping that the Sulu provincial board, led by Vice Gov. Abdusakur Mahail Tan, Sr., will listen to their appeal to invalidate its resolution, dated December 26, 2025.

The now-controversial resolution, signed by Tan and eight other Sangguniang Panlalawigan members, stated that the province is opposed to the slated gathering of MILF members in Luuk town and to all other activities it may plan to embark on anywhere in Sulu.

The resolution pointed out that any MILF activity in Sulu without clearance from the military and the provincial government can cause misunderstanding among the local communities and the front. 

The Supreme Court removed Sulu from the core territory of BARMM last year, as petitioned by Tan years prior, when he was still governor of the province. Tan was elected vice governor of Sulu during the May 12, 2025 elections.

Sulu was originally a component-province of the now defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which was established in 1992 and, subsequently, got replaced with a more empowered BARMM in 2019, a product of 22-years of peace talks between Malacañang and the MILF. 

Despite Sulu's having become a component-province of Region 9, based on a directive signed late last year by President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., provincial offices of BARMM agencies in the province continued serving local residents, implementing public service programs in all of its towns and in its capital, Jolo municipality.

MNLF officials led by Sema, who is chairman of the front's central committee, said the resolution of the Sulu Sangguniang Panlalawigan is not good for the joint efforts of Malacanang and Moro communities to foster lasting peace in southern cities and provinces via inclusive community-empowerment initiatives.

“We are hoping that the provincial board in Sulu will listen to us. All we want is peace, lasting peace, co-existence and solidarity of all Moro communities in Mindanao,” Sema said.

The MNLF and the MILF are together overseeing the operation of several BARMM agencies and have representatives too in the region’s 80-seat parliament.

The appointed chief minister of BARMM, Abdulrauf Macacua, is a senior official of the MILF.

MNLF officials said Moro leaders in BARMM and in other regions in Mindanao ought to cooperate in protecting the dividends of the government's separate peace agreements with both fronts that fought hard for self-governance by Moro communities in the context of Philippine sovereignty.