Eugene Martin and Astrid Tuminez addressed the Capitol Hill-based study group "Security for a New Century” on the status of the peace talks between the Philippines government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
By: Haroro Ingram, Country Director, Philippines, USIP
For decades, the struggle for peace in the Philippines’ southernmost island of Mindanao has been characterized by armed conflict between the Philippines government and Moro separatist groups, like the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), and cycles of failed peace processes. The historic 2014 peace agreement between the Philippines government and MILF led to the granting of greater self-governance with the creation of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) five years later. What has followed since is an unprecedented, yet very fragile, period of peace and stability.
Once a U.S. colony and now a U.S. treaty ally, the Philippines sits at the heart of geopolitical contestation in East Asia. It is also home to a half-century old internal conflict that has long spawned transnational threats to global security.
It’s been a decade since the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Philippines government signed the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, which ended nearly 50 years of conflict in the southern Philippines. Despite setbacks and tensions along the way, implementation of the agreement has yielded notable successes in recent years — most notably the establishment of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) in 2019 and, with it, an unprecedented period of relative peace and stability. However, the final months of 2024 have brought yet another twist in this long-standing struggle for peace in the Bangsamoro region.
Increasing scrutiny and exposure of global internet scams based in Southeast Asia has sparked fast-moving developments to quash the schemes and countermoves by the organized gangs behind them. Recent months have seen crackdowns, arrests and internet cutoffs by law enforcement agencies and regional governments. Meanwhile, Cambodia and Myanmar continue to be the most egregious havens for criminal operations, while Laos seems to be demonstrating early signs of concern for the impact of organized crime on its sovereignty.