Adapting from Outsider to Insider Mediation in the Bangsamoro Peace Process, Southern Philippines

Abstract

Over the last four decades, tremendous efforts by international and national mediators have been made to bring about peace that contributed to creating a new Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) in 2019. This chapter attempts to identify the factors and actors that led to creating the BARMM through multilayered mediation, by broadening the definition of mediation from transitional (international-external-predetermined) to innovative (local-insider-adaptive), and elaborating adaptiveness at the local level. It concludes that insider mediation would lead to (1) building trust among the involved parties; (2) nurturing unity across affiliations; (3) increasing a sense of ownership toward the peace process; (4) strengthening vertical and horizontal relations among the Moros, and the Moros and the Christians at multilevels; and (5) ultimately contributing to sustainable peace.