A female member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front relaxes at a rebel base in Basilan island in southern Philippines. (Mindanao Examiner Photo / Mark Navales)
COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / August 27, 2008) – The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), once the Philippines’ largest Muslim rebel group which a signed a peace deal with Manila, urged President Gloria Arroyo Wednesday to pursue the government’s peace process in Mindanao.
Muslimin Sema, the MNLF chairman, urged Arroyo to resume the stalled peace talks with Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels to end weeks of sporadic fighting that had killed more than 100 people in Mindanao.
“We urge President Arroyo and the MILF to resume the peace talks and put an end to the fighting in Mindanao,” Sema, also the mayor of Cotabato City, told the Mindanao Examiner.
Muslimin Sema, the MNLF chairman, urged Arroyo to resume the stalled peace talks with Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels to end weeks of sporadic fighting that had killed more than 100 people in Mindanao.
“We urge President Arroyo and the MILF to resume the peace talks and put an end to the fighting in Mindanao,” Sema, also the mayor of Cotabato City, told the Mindanao Examiner.
Rebels led by Ameril Kato and Abdurahman Macapaar launched a series of attacks after the failed signing of the controversial memorandum of agreement on the ancestral domain between the MILF and the Arroyo peace negotiators.
On Tuesday, security forces recovered bomb ingredients from a captured MILF encampment in Tukanalipao village in Maguindanao’s Mamasapano town, said Lt. Col. Julieto Ando, a spokesman for the Army’s 6th Infantry Division.
Ando said troops recovered four bags of nitrates and gunpowder, including C4 explosives and four anti-tank rockets, nine rifle grenades and an alarm clock. “With all these bomb-making materials, the rebels may be planning a series of attacks probably in civilian areas to divert the military’s attention away from Kato and Macapaar. We should stay vigilant,” he said.
Manila demanded the MILF to surrender peacefully the two rogue commanders, now wanted by authorities, to face trial over the killings of civilians in the provinces of North Cotabato, Lanao del Norte, Sarangani, Sultan Kudarat and Maguindanao where rebel forces pillaged villages.
The accord would have granted Muslims their own homeland in more than 700 villages across Mindanao, but the deal sparked a series of protests from politicians and residents opposed to the inclusion of their areas to the agreement that will make up the so-called Bangsamoro Juridical Entity.
The Supreme Court stopped the signing of the deal after some lawmakers and politicians opposed to the accord filed separate petitions, saying, there were no public consultations.
Arroyo has bared a shift in the basic premise of the government's peace efforts from talking with the armed groups to holding discussions with the communities in the conflict areas.
“The focus of our talks shall shift from the armed groups to the communities. The parameters governing our negotiations shall be a balance between the constitutionality and public sentiment,” she said, adding the government must maintain a peaceful and orderly society.
Arroyo said the change in the government's approach to end the Mindanao conflict prompted by the atrocities committed by the MILF attacks in Mindanao.
Hermogenes Esperon, Arroyo’s peace adviser, said despite the attacks, the government will still pursue the peace talks with the MILF. “In spite of all that is happening (in Mindanao), we remain focused on our goals and that is to achieve lasting peace in Mindanao,” he said.
Esperon also said the ancestral domain deal is not self-executing and that that there is a need for future discussions as peace negotiators frame the comprehensive peace agreement. “The MOA (memorandum of agreement) on the ancestral domain should not be viewed as an end in itself, but rather a tool to reinforce agreement on the principles, and a roadmap for greater self-governance of the Bangsamoro people,” he said.
Esperon said there is need to amend the Constitution to allow referendum on areas under the ancestral domain.
Peace negotiators last month also signed an agreement in Kuala Lumpur that will empower the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity to build, develop and maintain its own institutions, inclusive of civil service, electoral, financial and banking, education, legislation, legal, economic, police and internal security force, judicial system and correctional institutions necessary for developing a progressive Muslim society.
Murad Ebrahim, the MILF chieftain, said they will not anymore negotiate the ancestral domain deal, saying, peace negotiators have already initialed the accord last month in Malaysia, which is brokering the peace talks.
Ebrahim also said the MILF will not surrender Kato and Macapaar, saying, the two are being investigated for their role in the deadly attacks.
Sema said he would propose to the MILF and the Arroyo government to let the ad-hoc joint action group to handle the investigations and charges against Kato and Macapaar.
The MILF forged an agreement with Manila in 2004 that created the ad-hoc joint action group which paved the way for rebel and government forces to hunt down terrorists and criminal elements in Mindanao.
In the past, the MILF, through the ad-hoc joint action group, has provided Manila of a list of suspected Filipino and Indonesian terrorists operating in Mindanao. It also previously helped Philippine authorities track down and arrest kidnappers and suspected Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiya militants in the troubled region.
But with the MILF’s refusal to surrender Kato and Macapaar to government authorities, the ad-hoc joint action group may fail to get hold of the two rebel commanders. Manila has already offered up to P10 million for the capture of Kato and Macapaar.
The MNLF appealed to lawmakers and politicians in Mindanao to support the peace process and not to inflame the already tensed situation by issuing statements that could provoke divisiveness or an all-out war between rebels and soldiers.
“We appeal to lawmakers and politicians to help sustain the peace process and not douse the flame of hope and peace in Mindanao. Our people are suffering from the war in Mindanao. We all want peace,” Sema said.
Sema said his group, which signed a peace deal with Manila in September 1996, is supporting the seven-year old peace talks between the MILF and the government.
“We cannot afford to be divided in the peace process because it will also divide our people. We are now pursuing on how the MNLF and the MILF can work together for peace in Mindanao,” he said.
The MILF, then under Salamat Hashim, broke away with the MNLF in 1977 and fought the government for the establishment of a separate Muslim homeland in the southern Philippines. Hashim died of a heart attack in 2003 and Ebrahim, then the MILF military chief, had been appointed to take over as the new chieftain of the rebel group.
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