SENTRO Statement Supporting the Call for the Extension of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority
Extend the Transition, Guarantee Peace!
The international worker’s movement has a long and principled history of opposing war.
Whether these be imperialist wars of conquest, or wars leading to national fratricide, the trade unions have always been a voice of de escalation, restraint, and cooperation. This is all the more true in the 21st century.
Confronted with new rivalries, as well as old and persistent conflicts, the labor movement stands as a reliable ally of international peace and solidarity among peoples.
The Sentrong mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa (SENTRO) supports the call to extend the transition process in the Bangsamoro to 2028. We are one with the call of civil society organizations’ to extend the normalization process in the Bang samoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). Given the gravity of the task facing peace, it is necessary that all pending structural, political, and social reforms are completed before there can be any talk of transition or formalization. To have an election when the necessary conditions of social justice, economic prosperity, and political democracy have yet to be met invites catastrophe down the road.
SENTRO believes that the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) must be given more time to, among other things, legislate the hard reforms required to sustain a just peace in BARMM. Specifically, we assert the necessity of completing comprehensive structural reforms in the Bangsamoro such as on the labor code, land reform, ancestral domain, anti-dynasty provisions, and the dismantling of all private armies.
Without these vital structural refoms, the roots of peace in the Bangsamoro will remain shallow and tenuous. Together with the Bangsamoro people, SENTRO joins civil society appeals for the extension of the transition process. Peace cannot be rushed. A permanent end to strife and armed conflict requires political empowerment, historical justice and economic development.
