More MILF members join Bangsamoro Federalist Party

June 1, 2026 | 5:50pm

COTABATO CITY — More than 1,000 members of the two large units of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) joined the Bangsamoro Federalist Party on Saturday, May 30, making them part of one of the 16 regional parties gearing up for the September 14 Bangsamoro parliamentary polls.

The MILF also has its United Bangsamoro Justice Party, which fields candidates for the 80-seat Bangsamoro parliament in the first-ever September 14 parliamentary elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Radio reports on Sunday morning stated that among those who pledged loyalty to the Bangsamoro Federalist Party, during a symbolic rite on Friday in Cotabato City were anking former combatants of the MILF’s 104th and 128th Base Commands, which were involved in clashes with state security forces during conflicts in Central Mindanao prior to the signing of their final truce with the national government in 2014.

The 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro, a product of 22 years of peace talks, between the MILF and the national government, paved the way for the replacement in 2019 of the then 27-year Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao with the more empowered BARMM.

Senior Bangsamoro Federalist Party officials, including its regional chairperson, the Bangsamoro parliament member Tomanda Antok, officiated Saturday's oathtaking in Cotabato City of the MILF members, including former guerilla leaders Kashmir Mohammed and Yasser Abdulkadir, an Islamic missionary, as new members of the party.

Sunday’s radio reports in cities and provinces in the BARMM and Region 12 stated that a total of 1,934 members of the MILF’s 104th and 128th Base Commands, led by Mohammed and  Abdulkadir, joined the Bangsamoro Federalist Party.

Mohammed and Abdulkadir separately told reporters after the event that they and their followers decided to join the Bangsamoro Federalist Party after concluding that it has more comprehensive peacebuilding and socio-economic empowerment goals for BARMM’s Muslim, Christian and non-Moro indigenous communities.

More than 50 of the 116 town mayors in BARMM’s Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi provinces also joined the Bangsamoro Federalist Party during separate caucuses held in different venues in recent weeks.

The Bangsamoro Federalist Party’s Cotabato City chapter chairman, lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo, also a member of the 80-seat BARMM parliament, said the MILF members who joined their party on Saturday are required to comply with its policy of cooperating with the Commission on Elections, the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region and the military in ensuring clean and safe September 14 elections in BARMM.

Sinarimbo added that they are also obliged to follow the party's regulation prohibiting the use of Facebook, or any mainstream media platform,to malign rivals of its endorsed candidates for the 80-member BARMM lawmaking body and the parties to which they belong.