Two Muslim leaders gunning for senatorial bid under the Bangon Pilipinas banner declared Sunday that giving up on peace talks is tantamount to giving up on Mindanao.

Dr. Zafrullah Alonto, former spokesperson of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and Count Habib Adz Nikabulin, commanding general of the Mindanao Composite Task Force Command of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), voiced this sentiment as they appealed to the government and the MILF peace panel not to brush off the significance of the peace talks.

In a press conference, Alonto and Nikabulin also assailed the breakdown of talks and said peace in Mindanao is long overdue.

“We have seen the atrocities of war at its worst. Caught in the crossfire, our poor Bangsamoro people senselessly died, including innocent women and children. If we give up on peace talks now, we give up on Mindanao; we only prolong the rule of ruthlessness. The deadline for peace in Mindanao was Sunday,” Alonto and Nikabulin said in a joint statement.

Despite belonging to two different factions, the two Moro leaders said they had chosen to run under the banner of presidential candidate Bro. Eddie Villanueva and vice presidential bet lawyer Perfecto Yasay because Bangon’s platform of government specifically devotes special attention to peace in Mindanao. Yasay himself was born in Kidapawan, Cotabato

“For several decades now, Southern Philippines, specifically Muslim Mindanao, had suffered much which caused thousands of lives lost and millions … homeless and destitute,” the two pointed out.

“I believe that we have reached the point that only a righteous leadership can lead in furthering genuine peace in Mindanao. So many leaders tried to do this in the past, but for lack of sincerity and transparency, nothing good happened. I believe that only under the righteous leadership of Bro. Eddie Villanueva, whose macro vision for a progressive Philippines gives special attention to Mindanao, can we make peace possible,” said Alonto who is also an expert on Islam.

Nikabulin expressed the same hope for peace in Mindanao under the leadership of Villanueva.
“No one can best speak about wanting peace for Mindanao than us. It’s our own people’s blood that gets spilled on the ground. We are already weary of war, poverty, and backwardness. We have as much right to a life of peace and prosperity as our people in Luzon and Visayas,” the MNLF leader said.

According to Nikabulin, the need for rightful representation of the Bangsamoro people in the Senate is what compelled him to run under the party of Villanueva.