ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 03 Feb) – Muslim rebels continue to hold top Filipino defense officials and soldiers in the southern island of Jolo and demanded Manila to free jailed rebel chieftain Nur Misuari.
A faction of disgruntled Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) rebels are holding Major General Mohamad Dolorfino, of the Philippine Marines; Colonels Davy Ramon and Sibayan, of the Philippine Army; Defense Under Secretary Ramon Santos and 21 soldiers and staff of Presidential peace adviser, Jesus Dureza.
A report Saturday by cable news network ANC, quoted Abdurahman Jamasali, an aide of Misuari, as saying that rebels were holding Dolorfino’s group hostage in Jolo island since Friday.
The rebels wanted Misuari freed so he can attend an important conference between the Organization of Islamic Conference, the Philippines and the MNLF next week in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Misuari is facing rebellion charges and is currently detained in Manila. He 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. But many former rebels were disgruntled with the accord, saying, the government 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.
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 escaped by boat to Malaysia, but was arrested there and deported to the Philippines.
The OIC also wanted Misuari released from jail to head the MNLF delegation to Saudi Arabia for the meeting.
Dolorfino’s group is being held at a jungle rebel base in Bitan-ag village near Panamao town, a stronghold of MNLF rebels in Jolo island, where hundreds of gunmen under Habier Malik and Khaid Ajibun are guarding them, said Jamasali.
“Maybe, we will stay here longer here (in Jolo island) unless the tripartite issue is resolved,” Jamasali told the Mindanao Examiner.
Dolorfino 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 the tripartite on February 6-8.
Southern Philippines military commander Lt. Gen. Eugenio Cedo denied the reports about the hostage-taking. “It’s not true. They are there in Jolo to talk about the peace agreement with the MNLF,” he said in a separate interview on Saturday.
Dureza, accompanied by Jolo governor Benjamin Loong, flew to the island Saturday to verify the reports. “I was told that the MNLF has asked the group of General Dolorfino to stay in Jolo to clarify some matters, especially on the matters of the holding of the tripartite meeting in Saudi,” Dureza said.
He said Manila agreed to preliminary meetings that will eventually lead to the holding of tripartite conference in Jeddah. Dureza said Dolorfino’s group is being treated well.
“They are all fine and well treated and their only complaint was that it is so cold up there (in the mountain,” he said.
Dolorfino on Saturday said rebels prevented them to leave Jolo island until the issue on the holding of the tripartite meeting has been resolved. “We were asked to stay in Jolo until such time the issue of the holding of the tripartite meeting is resolved,” he said by mobile phone from a rebel base in Jolo.
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 Egyptian Sayed El-Masry, who is adviser to OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, who visited 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.
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).Some of the disgruntled former rebels have either joined the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the country's largest separatist rebel group, and 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.
Masry said the Philippines and MNLF must sit together and discuss the problems affecting the implementation of the peace accord. He said the 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. (Mindanao Examiner)
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