Brunei sends soldiers to monitor cease-fire in Mindanao

Six Brunei soldiers get farewell honors as they head to Mindanao to serve as cease-fire observers in these photographs from the Radio Television Brunei.

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / May 1, 2010) – Brunei has deployed six of its soldiers to serve as cease-fire observers in the southern Philippines where Muslim rebels are currently negotiating peace with Manila.

The Radio Television Brunei reported that the six soldiers are part of the Royal Brunei Armed Forces and they will join the 6th Group of the International Monitoring Team to Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the country’s largest Muslim rebel group fighting for self-determination in Mindanao.

It said the soldiers, the 6th contingent of Brunei, is led by Major Pengiran Hamdiah bin Pengiran Haji Hashim. They left Brunei for Mindanao on Friday.

“As in the previous duty, the six RBAF International Monitoring Team personnel will form one mobile team and will be located at Cotabato City. The group will be responsible in observing and monitoring the implementation of cessation of hostilities, as well as the socio-economic development aspects of agreements signed between the government of the Republic of the Philippines and the MILF,” the report said.

The 60-man International Monitoring Team is composed of Malaysia, Libya, Brunei, Japan, and Norway. It is tasked to monitor the implementation of truce between government and MILF forces.

In 2008, Malaysia disgruntled over the slow progress of the peace talks, recalled about two dozen truce observers and blamed Manila for the stalled talks.

Filipino and rebel peace negotiators have recently signed several agreements ahead of general elections on May 10, but a major accord that would end decades of secessionist war in the restive southern region of Mindanao is still uncertain.

Mohagher Iqbal, the MILF’s chief peace negotiator, said the agreements will provide administrative support to the Bangsamoro Leadership and Management Institute, the cease-fire committees; the Ad Hoc Joint Action Group and a mechanism to return the internally displaced persons.

He said peace negotiators also agreed on the civilian protection component of the International Monitoring Team and the Philippines campaign to ban landmines.

The MILF, however, said the fate of the interim agreement is still not settled, even if the peace panels agreed on some common areas which are yet to be discussed in their next meeting this month.

It said peace negotiators met in the Malaysian capital to try to resolve differences in their drafts on the proposed interim agreement on transitional mechanism on governance, which will bridge the present and the incoming administration in the Philippines.

Malaysia is currently facilitating the peace talks which President Gloria Arroyo opened in 2001 in an effort to end bloody fighting in Mindanao. But Ghazali Jaafar, the MILF’s deputy for political affairs, said a peace deal with Arroyo, who is to step down next month when her term ends, is unlikely.

He said there is not enough time to continue the peace talks, but Jaafar expressed optimism the next president will honor all agreements signed under Arroyo’s rule.

“We have no more time to continue the peace talks and the peace negotiators are trying to reach an interim agreement so we may preserve the gains of the talks. We just hope the next president will continue the peace process. We are for peace,” Jaafar said. (Mindanao Examiner)

MILF, RP sign new agreements, but peace deal is unlikely

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao / April 22, 2010) – Philippine peace negotiators and Muslim rebels signed several agreements ahead of national elections, but a major accord that would end decades of secessionist war in the restive southern region of Mindanao is still uncertain.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the country’s largest Muslim rebel group fighting for self-determination, said it signed the agreement in Kuala Lumpur after two days of tough negotiations.

Mohagher Iqbal, the MILF’s chief peace negotiator, said the agreements will provide administrative support to the Bangsamoro Leadership and Management Institute, the cease-fire committees; the Ad Hoc Joint Action Group and a mechanism to return the internally displaced persons.

Peace negotiators also agreed on the civilian protection component of the International Monitoring Team and the Philippines campaign to ban landmines.

The MILF, however, said the fate of the interim agreement is still not settled, even if the peace panels agreed on some common areas which are yet to be discussed in their next meeting early next month.

It said peace negotiators met in the Malaysian capital to try to resolve differences in their drafts on the proposed interim agreement on transitional mechanism on governance, which will bridge the present and the incoming administration in the Philippines.

Malaysia is currently facilitating the peace talks which President Gloria Arroyo opened in 2001 in an effort to end bloody fighting in Mindanao.

But Ghazali Jaafar, the MILF’s deputy for political affairs, said a peace deal with Arroyo, who is to step down next month when her term ends, is unlikely.

He said there is not enough time to continue the peace talks, but Jaafar expressed optimism the next president will honor all agreements signed under Arroyo’s rule.

“We have no more time to continue the peace talks and the peace negotiators are trying to reach an interim agreement so we may preserve the gains of the talks. We just hope the next president will continue the peace process. We are for peace,” Jaafar said.

Many of the MILF fighters said they are supporting the peace process and also hope that the next administration would honor all agreements signed since 2001 by the two sides.

The MILF peace panel is headed by Mohagher Iqbal and his government counterpart Rafael Seguis. (Mindanao Examiner)

Peace deal unlikely under President Arroyo, says MILF

A Moro Islamic Liberation Front fighter peeks through the sight of a .50-caliber machine gun Friday, March 12, 2010 at a rebel outpost in the southern Philippines. The MILF, which is negotiating peace with Manila, says it is unlikely to sign a peace deal with President Gloria Arroyo who is stepping down in May this year. Arroyo opened up peace talks with the country’s largest Muslim rebel group in 2001 in an effort to end decades of bloody fighting in the restive, but mineral-rich region of Mindanao. Below, MILF deputy chieftain Ghazali Jaafar. (Mindanao Examiner Photo)

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 12, 2010) – The Philippines’ largest Muslim rebel group Moro Islamic Liberation Front said Friday it is likely to sign a peace deal with President Gloria Arroyo, who is to step down in May when her term ends.

Arroyo opened up peace talks with the MILF in 2001 and signed several agreements in the past; including a cease-fire accord that prevented major clashes in the restive, but mineral-rich region of Mindanao, home to more than 4 million Muslims.

Ghazali Jaafar, the MILF’s deputy chieftain, said there is not enough time to continue the talks, but he expressed optimism the next president will honor all agreement signed under Arroyo’s rule.

“We have no more time to continue the peace talks and the peace negotiators are trying to reach an interim agreement so we may preserve the gains of the talks. We just hope the next president will continue the peace process. We are for peace,” Jaafar said from his base in Mindanao.

The MILF, he said, is fighting for self-determination in Mindanao, which was formerly ruled by the sultans until the Spaniards came and colonized the Philippines in 1521. The rule lasted more than 300 years.

“But I tell you, even if the Spaniards came, we were never colonized. The Bangsamoro people were never conquered,” Jaafar said, referring to the Muslims and the valiant fighting spirit that they are known for.

Jaafar is one the most senior leader of the MILF, which is now headed by the secluded Murad Ebrahim, who previously was the group’s military chieftain.

Many of the MILF fighters said they are supporting the peace process and also hope that the next administration would honor all agreements signed since 2001 by the two sides.

The MILF peace panel is headed by Mohagher Iqbal and his government counterpart Rafael Seguis.

“Yes, I am for peace. I am supporting the peace talks. There is no reason to fight because we are also for peace,” said MILF rebel Anwar as he held on to his rocket-propelled grenade launcher near his detachment in Mindanao.

Like Anwar, the others in his unit also are supporting the peace process. “We don’t want fighting anymore. It only brings misery and destruction, hunger and pain. We want peace also,” said another MILF fighter, Musa, who fought government soldiers half of his life in Mindanao defending their ancestral lands and rights as a proud Muslim.

“Time will come that instead of this automatic rifle, I will probably be carrying my son and live a peaceful and quiet life – all for the sake of peace and the future of our children and the next generation, Inshaallah! In God’s will,” he said. (Mindanao Examiner)

MILF orders rebel forces to fight kidnappings-for-ransom in South RP

SULTAN KUDARAT, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / June 30, 2009) – The Philippines’ largest Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, has ordered its 12,000-strong mujahideen to fight kidnapping-for-ransom activities in Mindanao.

It also ordered rebel forces to arrest and take drastic actions against kidnappers in areas where the MILF is actively operating. It was the second order in seven years that the MILF told rebels to fight kidnappings-for-ransom.

Police and military authorities have accused rogue MILF members of either coddling kidnappers or themselves involved in the nefarious activities in Mindanao to raise fund for the purchase of weapons or finance their secessionist campaign.

“The Central Committee of the MILF directs its freedom fighters comprising the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces to arrest and take drastic actions against the perpetrators of this heinous crime until these criminal activities are neutralized and stopped in MILF areas,” said an MILF order signed on Monday by the Front’s chief of staff, Sammy Al-Mansur.

“Anti-kidnapping task force is hereby organized for this purpose. For strict compliance and implementation,” it further said.

The order was also signed by Ghazali Jaafar, the MILF’s vice chairman for political affairs.

Authorities said Moro rebels were behind the kidnappings of wealthy traders, including an Italian priest, Luciano Benedetti, in Zamboanga del Norte province in 1998. Benedetti, 52, was held for nearly 10 weeks until he was freed in exchange for a huge government ransom.

In 2001, renegade MILF rebels also snatched Fr Giuseppe Pierantoni as the 44-year-old from Bologna said mass in the parish church of Dimataling town in Zamboanga del Sur. The priest was freed after six months in captivity in exchange for an unspecified ransom, but he claimed to have escaped from his kidnappers. His companions claimed he suffered from Stockholm syndrome, a phenomenon in which a hostage begins to identify with and grow sympathetic to his or her captor.

Kidnappings-for-ransom has become a lucrative business for rebels and criminal syndicates in Mindanao, where many areas are underdeveloped and job opportunities are scarce. Sometimes criminal gangs kidnapped civilians and hand them over to rebels in exchange for a cut in the ransom. Poverty has been blamed for many kidnappings in the South.

In February 2002, the MILF also issued a similar order after Manila sought its help in running after kidnappers in the southern Philippines. President Gloria Arroyo, who opened peace talks with the MILF in 2001, also signed a truce with rebels.

And in 2004, the MILF forged an agreement with Manila that paved the way for rebel forces through the ad-hoc joint action group to help government hunt down terrorists and criminal elements in areas where the rebel group is actively operating.

But peace talks collapsed in August last year after the MILF accused Arroyo of reneging on a preliminary Muslim homeland deal. The Supreme Court said the agreement which was initially signed in Malaysia in July 2008 is unconstitutional.

Since then, fighting between military and rebel forces continue. The MILF said it will not resume peace talks unless Arroyo honors the ancestral domain deal. Arroyo is to step down next year without any significant deal with the MILF. (Mindanao Examiner)

ARMM Polls May Affect Peace talks, MILF Rebels Say

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / July 18, 2008) – Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels on Friday urged Manila to postpone next month’s regional elections in Mindanao until both sides sign a peace agreement.

Peace negotiators reached an agreement on the issue of ancestral domain and both sides are discussing talks aimed at putting an end to more than four decades of hostilities in the southern region.

Ancestral domain is the single most important issue in the peace negotiations before the rebel group can reach a political settlement with the Philippine government.

The ancestral domain covers the whole of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and other areas in Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani provinces where there are large communities of Muslims and indigenous tribes. And even Palawan Island in central Philippines.

Manila has offered to hold a plebiscite in at least 712 villages covered by the Muslim ancestral domain and a shift to Federal system of government before the term of President Gloria Arroyo ends in 2010.

Ghazali Jaafar, deputy MILF chieftain, said the August 11 polls in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao would affect the peace talks because those who would be elected have to finish their three-year term.

“Three years is a long time. Many can happen within three years. There is a need to postpone the elections in the ARMM. The MILF is very serious in asking the Arroyo administration to postpone the forthcoming ARMM elections.”

“The ARMM elections are an obstacle to the successful implementation of the peace process if there is an agreement signed (by both sides because) we have to wait for the elected officials to finish their terms,” Jaafar said.

President Gloria Arroyo's peace adviser Secretary Hermogenes Esperon said both panels will meet on July 24 to formally sign the deal on ancestral domain.

“Six months after signing the agreement on ancestral domain, we will already hold plebiscites in the villages that will be included in their Bangsamoro Juridical Entity maybe in January or February next year even as the formal negotiations for the last phase of the peace talks are still ongoing,” Esperon said.

But militant groups and opposition politicians fear that President Arroyo or her allies in the House of Representatives might use the peace talks with the MILF as an excuse to amend the Constitution to change the system of government from presidential to parliamentary or federalism to allow the MILF to have a separate state and eventually prolong her into power beyond 2010.

Under the presidential form of government, Arroyo, who deposed President Joseph Estrada in a people power revolution in 2001, is allowed only one six-year term. In the charter change proposal suggested by her political allies who dominate Congress, she can be elected as prime minister should Congress dissolve the Senate and change the system of government to parliamentary.

Senator Aquilino Pimentel also proposed a Federal system of government.

Pimentel said the establishment of a federal system, as embodied under Joint Resolution 10 which he has introduced, will not only overhaul the political structure of government but also bring about a dramatic change in the system of apportioning the wealth of the nation between the central government and the local government units.

“Since the central government will be left with less power, it will need fewer funds. And therefore, its share of the national wealth or resource shall be reduced correspondingly.As proposed in Resolution 10, the sharing of revenues will be 80 percent for the Federal states and 20 percent for the Central government."

Pimentel said federalization of the country would enhance national cohesion and unity because the proposed 11 component states will enjoy full autonomy in administering their affairs and pursuing their economic development through the wise use of resources available in their respective territories and provided by the central government.

Pimentel proposed four Federal states in Luzon: the federal state of Northern Luzon; Central Luzon; Southern Tagalog; and Bicol. And three in the Visayas: the federal state of Eastern Visayas; Central Visayas; and Western Visayas.And three more Federal states in Mindanao: the federal state of Northern Mindanao; Southern Mindanao; and the Bangsamoro.

President Arroyo opened peace talks with the MILF in 2001 and vowed to forge a peace deal with the rebels before her term ends on 2010. The MILF is fighting for a separate homeland in Mindanao Island, whose 16 million populations include about four million Muslims.

Manila previously offered the MILF the Muslim autonomous region, which is composed of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi which are among the poorest in the country and torn by strife and clan wars since its creation in 1989. The MILF flatly rejected the offer and insisted on self-determination.

Peace talks were stalled last year after both sides failed to sign any agreement on ancestral domain, which refers to the rebel demand for territory that will constitute a Muslim homeland.The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) said neither the poll body or government peace negotiators can postpone the ARMM elections. It said there is no reason to delay the elections.

“We cannot postpone the ARMM elections. It would be up solely to the Congress to postpone the elections, but it is too late now because there is no more time. We will go through this elections because we mandated by law,” said COMELEC Commissioner Jose Melo, who is in-charge of the ARMM polls.

Melo said the ARMM polls will not be a hindrance to the peace talks. “It will not be in any way a roadblock to any peace talks,” he said.

Many Muslims said they are in favor of a separate Bangsamoro homeland. “We want to have our own homeland, just like in the past. We are neglected here. We don’t have any development projects in our village. We don’t enjoy what Christians (villages) have like health centers, electricity and clean water, roads and schools and many more.”

“We are discriminated and looked down by Christians as if we are beggars. This land is ours, they belong to our ancestors,” said Ahmed, a Muslim villager in Zamboanga City, the former capital of the Moro province.

Zamboanga’s first inhabitants were the indigenous tribes called Subanon and Lutao and later the Islamized ethnic groups of Samal, Badjao, Tausug and Yakan. It is one of the first chartered cities and the sixth largest in the Philippines.

The MILF said some Zamboanga’s predominantly Muslim villages are included in the ancestral domain. (Mindanao Examiner)

Mastermind In Kidnap Or Italian Priest Still With MILF

An undated photo of a United States Navy Orion spy plane flying over Zamboanga Peninsula in the southern Philippines. The U.S deploys an Orion aircraft, also known as electronic warfare prowler jet, to help Philippine authorities track down an Italian missioner Giancarlo Bossi, who was kidnapped by rogue Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels, possibly with ties to the Abu Sayyaf group linked to al-Qaeda. Below, a fleet of Orion planes stationed in Mactan Air Base in central Philippines, in this photo taken in 2006, from the archives of the Zamboanga Journal Online News. (Mindanao Examiner Photo Service)

MAGUINDANAO (Mindanao Examiner / 14 Jun) – The mastermind in the kidnapping of an Italian priest in the southern Philippines may still be connected with the country’s largest Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Philippine authorities tagged a rogue MILF leader Akiddin Abdusallam and his brother Waning Abdusallam, in the kidnapping June 10 of Fr. Giancarlo Bossi in Payao town in Zamboanga Sibugay province.

Rebel leaders initially denied the charges and blamed the Abu Sayyaf in the kidnapping, but the group’s deputy chief, Ghazali Jaafar, on Thursday said the chief kidnapper appears to be still a member of the MILF.

“Akiddin Abbusallam appears to be an MILF member up to this time,” said Jaafar, the MILF deputy chief for political affairs.

But Jaafar was quick to say that Abdusallam may also be innocent of all accusations against him.

“As far as we know, those who abducted the priest are notorious personalities involved in previous kidnappings (for ransom) in Pagadian City and Zamboanga City and in (Zamboanga) Sibugay,” Jaafar said. “They operate on their own and we cannot say if they have links or members of the Abu Sayyaf group.”

Jaafar said they have three suspects in the kidnapping of Bossi, but could not divulge them publicly, saying, it could jeopardize efforts to free the missioner.

Maj. Gen. Nehemias Pajarito, commander of the Army’s First Infantry Division, said Abdussalam has denied any involvement in the kidnapping.

Pajarito said: “Akiddin Abdusallam has denied any involvement in the kidnapping of the Italian priest. Fr. Bossi. He said he has no participation in the kidnapping. Authorities are investigating this claim.”

Police said Abdusallam is the deputy commander the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces, the military wing of the MILF, operating in the province. He was previously reported to have died in a clash with troops, but it turned that he is alive.

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu and chief rebel peace negotiator, Mohagher Iqbal, both said that Abdusallam, who was a former leader of the Moro National Liberation Front, had long ceased to be a member of their group, which is currently negotiating peace with Manila.

For his part, Jaafar said the MILF is helping Filipino authorities track down the kidnappers and their hostage in Zamboanga Sibugay province.

Catholic priests are also seeking contact with the kidnappers in an effort to secure the freedom of Bossi, who was seized after celebrating mass in the remote village of Bulawan.

The Philippines also sought the deployment of a U.S. EP-3 Orion reconnaissance aircraft, also known as electronic warfare prowler jets, to help ground forces trace the kidnappers.

The Philippine and U.S. forces previously used the spy plane, capable of carrying missiles, to hunt down Abu Sayyaf militants who kidnapped three American citizens in 2001 in Mindanao.

Reconnaissance aircraft routinely flies over Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago presumably to spot Abu Sayyaf positions. U.S. forces, on the request of the Philippine government, are helping Filipino soldiers in the campaign by providing satellite snapshots of the area of operation. (With a report from Mark Navales)