Will the establishment of a new former rebel-led government in restive Mindanao, Philippines provide a catalyst for political change in the region? After decades of protracted war the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the largest Muslim insurgent group in Mindanao, has taken the reins of authority in the region as a consequence of a political settlement with the government of the Philippines. A new political entity, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), was established in March 2019 after the ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) during the January and February 2019 plebiscites. The BOL is the foundational instrument creating the BARMM specifying its territories, structure of government, and power- and wealth-sharing arrangements with the central government to realize the Muslim Filipinos' aspirations for self-determination and pursue their social, political, economic and cultural development within the Philippines constitutional framework. As an integral part of a comprehensive peace settlement, the BARMM is meant to correct a 'failed experiment', the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) that was a creation of past peace agreement in 1989 with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), the first Muslim secessionist group that waged war against the government in the '70s.