A number of sultans from various sultanates in Mindanao are offering their traditional leadership to help forge lasting peace in Mindanao.
Apprehensive of the influence of current peace negotiators from rebel forces in effecting peace with the Moro people, the sultans said chances for a lasting peace could be achieved with the involvement of traditional Muslim leaders.
They are, however, optimistic on federalism, which is being espoused by President Duterte.
Sultan Kudarat Gov. and Rajah Buayan Sultan Omar Pax Mangungudatu, in a news conference at the launching of the Confederation of Royal Sultanates in Mindanao last Thursday, said 49 years had passed since the Mindanao independent movement emerged and wars kept on breaking out. Now, after about 50 years of negotiating with the government, “no substantial achievement about peace” with the Moro people has been achieved.
He cited the peace agreement in 1976 with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), the 1996 Jiddah Accord and the 1996 peace agreement that he said failed to stop war in Mindanao.
He said peace was elusive because the past administrations failed to tap the missing element—the involvement of traditional leaders, like the sultans, in the peace process.
“They forget that we are the chieftains of the Bangsamoro people. We are the real and legitimate traditional leaders of the Bangsamoro people,” he added.
Sultan Abdullah Topaan Disomimba also said traditional leaders are highly respected Muslim leaders.
He added that when he was still a mayor, he solved the problem of rido (generational war between families) by using his position as sultan when his being a mayor would not suffice to do the job.
“That has much implication in the peace process as there’s no barangay in our place in Lanao that is not under the influence of a sultan,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mangungudatu initiated the forming of the Confederation of Royal Sultanates in Mindanao at the Davao Convention Center last Thursday. Sultanates forming the confederation were the Royal Sultanate of Rajah Buayan, Marawi Sultanate League, Royal House in General Santos, Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo and Royal Sultanate of Bangsa Kagan.
Sultans have royal bloodlines from the first sultan in Mindanao, Muhammed Shariff Kabungsuwan, who first introduced Islam in the island in the 16th century.
An official of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) said in Moro history, there were originally only two sultanates in Mindanao—the Sultanate of Maguindanao and the Sultanate of Sulu.
“The Sultanate of Buayan, then the Sultanate of Kabuntalan followed suit. Then many sultanates emerged with little kingdoms,” the NCMF official said.