BREAKING NEWS: Muslim Rebels Take Hostage Senior Defense, Military Officials And Troops In Strife-Torn Jolo Island

Government troops disembark from a military truck in Jolo island. Moro National Liberation Front rebels held hostage Friday 02 Jan 2007 senior military and defense officials and soldiers in Jolo and warned Manila not to postpone a scheduled tripartite meeting between the Organization of Islamic Conference, the MNLF and the Philippines next week in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The OIC wanted jailed MNLF leader Nur Misuari released to attend the conference. (Mindanao Examiner Photo)

JOLO ISLAND (Mindanao Examiner / 03 Feb) – Disgruntled Muslim rebels who signed a peace agreement with Manila in 1996 have taken hostage senior military and defense officials and soldiers in Jolo island, about 950 km south of the Philippine capital.

Members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) are holding Major General Mohamad Dolorfino, of the Philippine Marines; Colonels Davy Ramon and Sibayan, of the Philippine Army; Defense Under Secretary Ramon Santos, 21 soldiers and staff of Presidential peace adviser, Jesus Dureza, rebel sources told the Mindanao Examiner.

They were being held at a jungle rebel base in Bitan-ag village near Panamao town, a stronghold of MNLF rebels in Jolo island. Government negotiations are going on for the release of all the hostages held by hundreds of rebels under Habier Malik and Khaid Ajibun.

Dolorfino’s group flew to Jolo island on Friday morning for a meeting with MNLF leaders, but had been taken captive later in the day after the rebels thumbed down a government proposal to postpone a scheduled tripartite meeting by the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), the Philippines and MNLF in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on February 6-8.

Southern Philippines military commander Lt. Gen. Eugenio Cedo denied the report, but Dureza confirmed that Dolorfino’s group flew to Jolo and were in Bitan-ag village. “They are sleeping by now in Bitan-ag. We will have validated reports in the morning,” he said.

The OIC brokered the peace talks between Manila and the MNLF until an agreement was signed in September 1996. But the MNLF, a decade after the peace accord, accused the Arroyo government of failing to honor the agreement.

Muslimen Sema, MNLF secretary general and also mayor of Cotabato City, has previously accused the government of failing to honor some provisions in the peace deal and also told this to the OIC representatives, led by international human rights expert Egyptian Sayed El-Masry, who is adviser to OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, who Jolo island in May last year.

"We told the OIC mission about the failure of the government to fully implement the 1996 peace agreement and many of our members are disgruntled about this," Sema said.

Nur Misuari, chieftain of the MNLF, signed a peace deal with Manila in September 1996, ending more than 20 years of bloody fighting in the southern Philippines.

After the peace agreement was signed, Misuari became the governor of autonomous region. Despite the accord, there was a widespread disillusionment with the weak autonomy they were granted.

Under the peace agreement, Manila would provide a mini-Marshal Plan to spur economic development in Muslim areas in the south and livelihood and housing assistance to tens of thousands of former rebels to uplift their poor living standards. The government later granted autonomy to five Muslim provinces in the south called the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

But many former rebels were disgruntled with the accord, saying, the goverment failed to comply with some of its provisions and uplift their standards of living. They accused the government of failing to develop the war-torn areas in the south, which remain in mired in poverty, heavily militarized and dependent financially on Manila.

Some of the disgruntled former rebels have either joined either the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), now the country’s largest separatist rebel group, or the smaller and ruthless Abu Sayyaf group.

And Muslims in the south are most likely to fight for or support an armed separatist front when they perceive no alternative means to overcome discrimination and improve their living conditions.

In November 2001, on the eve of the ARMM elections, Misuari accused the government of reneging on the peace agreement, and launched a new rebellion in Jolo island and Zamboanga City, where more than 100 people were killed. Misuari is facing trial on rebellion charges.

The OIC wanted Misuari released from jail to head the MNLF delegation to Saudi for the tripartite meeting.

"What we need now is the religious implementation of the peace agreement, so we can realize permanent peace and progress in the southern Philippines. The region is neglected, the Muslims are discriminated and many live in poverty. We need to rebuild everything, social and physical infrastructure are important to sustain the little peace that is left," Sema said.

Masry said after his visit last year to Jolo that Manila and MNLF must sit together and discuss the problems affecting the implementation of the peace accord. He said the proposed tripartite meeting in Saudi Arabia is important for the Philippines and the MNLF to finally settle the problems.

The OIC delegation was sent to the southern Philippines following the 32nd Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers (ICEM) at Sana'a Yemen in 2005 to check on the status of the remaining implementation requirement for peace accord.

In 2006, more than 1,400 disgruntled MNLF members in Mindanao threatened to abandon the 1996 peace agreement they signed with Manila after accusing the government of reneging on its pact with the former separatist rebel group.

“MNLF commanders all over Mindanao are getting restless over the perceived failure of the government to fulfill its obligations. I am afraid that if the government does not take this seriously, the negative sentiments of our armed combatants can run out of proportion and might lead to eventual abandonment of the agreement,” Sema said.

The MNLF also boycotted the ARMM elections in 2005 after the government supported Maguindanao town mayor Datu Zaldy Ampatuan, a staunch ally of President Gloria Arroyo, instead of MNLF candidates. (Mindanao Examiner)