GRP-MNLF-OIC review implementation of 1996 Final Peace Agreement

MANILA, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 13, 2009) - The three-day third session of the tripartite talks among the government of the Philippines (GRP), the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) opened in Manila with all three heads of delegations acknowledging that the Filipino people have been waiting "far too long" for peace to descend in Mindanao.

According to the official Philippine News Agency, the current session convened to evaluate the results of the joint working group meetings between the GRP and the MNLF which are being facilitated by the OIC-Peace Committee of Southern Philippines, also known as the Committee of 12 (C12) led by Indonesia. The first two sessions were held in Jeddah and Istanbul respectively.

At least five key issues are bones of contention in the protracted sessions of the GRP and MNLF, revolving mainly on the review of how the 1996 Final Peace Agreement has been implemented.
The issues include the integration of Muslims in mainstream government, the Shari'ah law and the judiciary, education and economic development.

Among others, the Agreement led to the establishment of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), with Nur Misuari as the first governor.

But GRP panel head Nabil Tan emphasized in his opening statement that "a review is not a renegotiation but a review of how implementation has fared."

Special Envoy Sayed El-Masry of Egypt, who represented the OIC Secretary-General, agreed with Tan.

"The Bangsamoro has been looking at us for many years to help them out," Masry said, as he reiterated appreciation for President Gloria Arroyo for her efforts in achieving peace in Mindanao.

Misuari led the 200-strong MNLF delegation, but he lamented the slow implementation process of the peace accord. He said it has been 33 years since the first Agreement was brokered by Libya and 13 years since the 1996 version in Indonesia and four years since the tripartite talks were first broached in Sanna, Yemen.

Misuari lambasted what he called as "platitudes after platitudes on peace" and appealed that his listeners "search (their) conscience, to make a resolution to break the cycle of terror and war in our homeland."

Misuari declared that the current sessions "is our last chance …and if we don't succeed in peace talks…we have no choice but to…probably return to our (MNLF) message of independence."

Ambassador Masry and two other members of the OIC C12 reacted and said "that's Misuari as he is…we've heard that before."

The OIC C12, which handles the Mindanao problem and led by Indonesia, includes Turkey, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Libya, Malaysia, Indonesia, Egypt, Brunei, Bangladesh, Senegal, Pakistan and Somalia.

Other high-profile MNLF members at the sessions included former ARMM Gov. Hussein Parouk, who is the MNLF's Foreign Affairs Secretary, and Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema.

Parouk noted that peace talks "can't go on forever, but a review of the Agreement" is vital. Even during his time as ARMM governor, Parouk had vigorously espoused putting Muslims in key government institutions such as the Supreme Court.

"Definitely, there is a Muslim who is qualified to be there (SC)…as much as there have already been Muslim associate justices in the Court of Appeals and the Commission on Elections," he told the Philippines News Agency at the sidelines of the session.

"We need to review an issue in the Shari'ah law and justice system for Muslims," he said. He referred apparently to the stringent requirement that admission to the Shari'ah Bar is predicated with membership in the secular and mainstream Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP).

In his opening statement, Masry pointed to the urgency of getting real deals in the current sessions. "In front of us is a real clue to move forward and let not the momentum slip away from our grasp."

There is "urgency for everyone to find the courage to put substance in to the peace process," Masry emphasized. "The time is now…and I appeal to the OIC to be steadfast in their commitment."

Nur Misuari Accuses Manila Anew Of Failing To Honor 12-Year Old Peace Deal

Former Moro National Liberation Front rebel chieftain Nur Misuari is flanked by former MNLF rebels-turned-government soldiers and supporters as they marched to a mosque in Zamboanga City in the southern Philippines where he speak to about 200 unarmed followers. Misuari accused the Arroyo government of failing to fully implement the 1996 peace agreement it signed with the MNLF. (Mindanao Examiner Photo)

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / August 6, 2008) – The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) has accused Manila on Wednesday of failing to implement the peace agreement it signed with the former Muslim rebel group more than a decade ago.

“We want freedom from the government. We don’t need a limited freedom,” Nur Misuari, leader of the MNLF who signed the peace deal in 1996, said in Zamboanga City where he met with about 200 former rebels and supporters, some from as far as Davao del Sur province.

“I have gone to all of the most dangerous places in Mindanao to tell our people to pray to almighty Allah for freedom. I call on our people to consolidate their unity and solidarity for freedom,” he said.

Misuari also spoke with his loyal MNLF leaders at the Lantaka hotel in downtown Zamboanga before attending a prayer in the nearby village of Santa Barbara.

Misuari, escorted by former rebels-turned-government soldiers, and supporters chanted “Allahu Akbar” or God is great, as they marched to the village. Security was tight for Misuari and Muslims entering the mosque to pray were frisked by soldiers for weapons.

“We really want our freedom back. The government was not really sincere in implementing the peace agreement it signed with us. We want our freedom and we want independence,” one of Misuari’s supporters, Abdulkadil Imdani told the Mindanao Examiner.

Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat also met with Misuari and they held a closed door meeting at the Garden Orchid hotel. Zamboanga was previously being claimed as part of the ancestral domain of the MNLF and residents had voted twice against the inclusion of their villages to the Muslim autonomous region.

Lobregat said he told Misuari that Zamboanga is a peaceful city and that residents had rejected two plebiscites in the past. Thousands of residents on Monday also rallied against attempts by Manila to include eight villages in Zamboanga City in the ancestral domain deal it signed last month with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a breakaway faction of the MNLF.

“I have told the (MNLF) Chairman (Nur Misuari) that in Zamboanga, we always live in harmony and we always live in peace. We have no wall between us, we live in harmony and we are in unity, Christians, Muslims and Lumads (indigenous peoples) alike,” Lobregat told reporters.

The Supreme Court temporarily stopped the formal signing Tuesday in Malaysia of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain after Zamboanga City Rep. Erico Fabian and other lawmakers filed a petition on Monday.

The MILF said the agreement was already approved on July 16 in Kuala Lumpur and that Tuesday’s signing was only a formal ceremony. But Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain, which seeks to expand the five-province Muslim autonomous region, will need enabling laws for it to be implemented.

He said the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain is part of a comprehensive peace agreement that Manila and the MILF will have to negotiate and conclude.

Manila is currently negotiating peace with the MILF, now the country’s largest Muslim rebel group which is fighting for a separate homeland in Mindanao.

Misuari said his group has nothing to do with the peace talks between the government and the MILF. “We are not involved in the peace process between the Government of the Philippines and the MILF. We are not part of any agreement between the government and the MILF,” he said, referring to the ancestral domain deal which would make up the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity that would grant Muslims a separate homeland.

“We are not involved (in the peace process). We are not a party to that. We are not bound by any consequences of any peace agreement,” Misuari said.

The MNLF, under Misuari, signed the peace deal with Manila in September 1996 ending decades of bloody war. After the peace agreement was signed, Misuari became the governor of the Muslim autonomous region. But despite the peace accord, there was a widespread disillusionment with the weak autonomy they were granted.

Under the peace accord, Manila would have to 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.

Misuari is now facing rebellion charges after his followers tried, but failed to overrun a major military base in Sulu province and another group held hostage over 100 people in Zamboanga City in 2001 in an attempt to stop the elections in the Muslim autonomous region. He fled to Sabah, his former refuge, but was arrested by the Malaysian authorities and sent back to Manila. Misuari is currently out on bail.

Early this year, the MNLF Central Committee said it removed Misuari as chairman of the former rebel group and installed Muslim Sema, the Front’s Secretary-General. But Misuari insisted that he is still the chieftain of the MNLF and accused Sema, also the mayor of Cotabato City, as traitor and so were those who supported Sema.

Misuari also earned the ire of the Malaysian government after he renewed calls of the claims of the Philippines to Sabah. In retaliation, Sabah Progressive Party President Datuk Yong Teck Lee, furious over the rumblings from Misuari, has called for stricter laws on Filipinos traveling to the oil-rich state.

The Malaysian official also said that the National Security Council should closely watch developments in the southern Philippines. Lee said the NSC and the Sabah State Security Committee should act on the problems brought about by Misuari’s revival of the Sabah claims.

He also urged Kuala Lumpur to suspend the ferry service between Zamboanga and Sandakan and impose bonds on incoming visitors and to require ferry passengers to have return tickets and to step up operations against illegal Filipino immigrants.

The Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo lays claim to Sabah. The Sultanate of Sulu was a Muslim state that ruled over much of the islands off the Sulu Sea. It stretches from a part of the island of Mindanao in the east, to North Borneo, now known as Sabah, in the west and south, and to Palawan, in the north.

The Sultanate of Sulu was founded in 1457 and is believed to exist as a sovereign nation for at least 442 years. The Sultanate of Sulu obtained Sabah from Brunei as a gift for helping put down a rebellion on the Borneo Island.

The British leased Sabah and transferred control over the territory to Malaysia after the end of Second World War. Even after Borneo became part of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur still pays an annual rent of 5,000 ringgit to the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu Ismail Kiram.

Misuari said what Malaysia pays to the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo is but a pittance. (Mindanao Examiner)

Manila To Send Jailed Rebel Chief To Exile In Libya

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Rift Between Military And MNLF Worsens In Jolo Island

ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 06 Feb) – Philippine soldiers warned Muslim rebels who held hostage senior Philippine defense officials and soldiers in Jolo island to stay inside their camps or risk being shot if caught carrying illegal weapons in public places.

“The MNLF rebels should stay inside their camps. If we see armed men outside these camps, then we will engage them,” said Brig. Gen. Juancho Sabban, commander of the 3rd Marine Brigade on Jolo island.

A faction of MNLF rebels under Habier Malik and Khaid Ajibun held Friday a government peace mission composed of Maj. Gen. Mohamad Dolorfino, of the Philippine Marines; Colonels Davy Ramon and Cipriano Bayan (earlier identified as Sibayan), of the Philippine Army; Defense Under Secretary Ramon Santos and 21 soldiers and staff of Presidential peace adviser, Jesus Dureza.

The rebels signed a peace agreement with Manila in September 1996, but the government allowed them to keep their huge inventory of high-power weapons, mostly automatic rifles, anti-tank rockets and machine guns. They later accused the Arroyo government of failing to comply with the accord.

Dolorfino’s group was seized after reports of a scheduled tripartite meeting between the MNLF, the Organization of Islamic Conference and the Philippines on Feb. 6-8 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia had been shelved off by the Arroyo government.

The hostages were freed on Sunday after Manila has agreed to proceed with the conference next month. The OIC, which brokered the peace talks, organized the tripartite meeting to discuss the full implementation of the agreement.

The gunmen earlier demanded Manila to free detained rebel chieftain Nur Misuari, who is facing rebellion charges in Manila, so he can lead the MNLF to the tripartite conference.

Dureza said relations between Manila and the MNLF had been damaged following the detention by rebels of senior military and defense officials in Jolo. Dureza said Malik’s group may face charges for seizing the peace mission.

Malik insisted that Dolorfino’s group was not only invited to stay longer inside the rebel base in Bitan-ag village in Panamao town to further negotiate the holding of the tripartite conference.

“We merely invited General Dolorfino’s group to stay longer until we agreed on the resumption of the tripartite meeting. And if Dureza wants to file charges against us, then that’s fine with me. No problems with us even if he files 100 charges.”

“We did nothing wrong, so why blame us. If there is somebody to blame, then it should be the military because they intruded inside our areas and massacred innocent Muslims,” Malik told a Manila-based radio network dzRH on Tuesday.

He said marine soldiers killed 10 MNLF members, including a boy, on Jolo island during a firefight last month with Abu Sayyaf militants. Three soldiers were also killed in the clash.

Sabban said those killed were Abu Sayyaf militants, whose group is tied to al-Qaeda terror network.

MNLF forces retaliated the slaying of its members days later and ambushed an army convoy, killing ten soldiers. Six rebels had been arrested, but local government officials with links to the MNLF, interceded for their release and freed them.

Police and military later said it had no evidence to link the six rebels to the ambush.

Malik said Dureza’s group paid blood money to the families of the slain rebels and returned their weapons seized by troops as part of a deal before the MNLF freed the hostages. “They paid us blood money and returned our weapons,” Malik said.

Dureza confirmed that blood money was paid, but did not say how much. Other reports said as much as P450,000 had been paid to the MNLF.

Malik said the tripartite meeting should be held inside the MNLF base in Jolo island instead of Saudi Arabia and invite representatives from the OIC and the Philippine government and for Manila to free Misuari to allow him to attend the conference.

Egyptian Sayed El-Masry, who is adviser to OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, visited Jolo island in May last year. Masry said the Philippines and MNLF leaders must sit together and discuss the problems affecting the implementation of the peace accord.

The OIC also wanted Misuari freed from jail to head the MNLF delegation to Saudi Arabia for the tripartite meeting. He said the tripartite meeting is important to finally settle the problems.

Malik said only Misuari can represent the MNLF. “He is our leader and must be freed so he can lead the MNLF in the tripartite conference in the MNLF camp in Bitan-ag,” he said.

He said only if Manila is sincere in implementing the 11-year old peace accord with the MNLF the problems of insurgency and terrorism in Jolo island would be finally resolved.

After the peace agreement was signed, Nur Misuari, chieftain of the MNLF, became the governor of the Muslim autonomous region. But despite the agreement, 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.

Many former guerrillas were disgruntled with the peace deal, saying, the Arroyo government failed to comply with some of its provisions and uplift their standards of living. They accused Manila of failing to develop the war-torn areas in the south.

And in November 2001, on the eve of the elections in the Muslim autonomous region, 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 then escaped by boat to Malaysia, but had been arrested and deported to the Philippines.

Dureza said the good relationship between the Philippine government and the MNLF was affected by the incident. He said the government would take precaution in dealing with the rebels in the future.

"This (hostage-taking) is a setback to their jobs in ensuring that what were agreed upon in the 1996 peace agreement were carried out accordingly,” Dureza said. "It was realistically eroded, not shattered. It would take a lot of work to bring back (that trust and confidence between us and the MNLF) to where it was."

Santos said he was willing to go back to the island and continue the government’s peace efforts with the rebels. “I am willing to return to Jolo, so we can continue what we have started,” he said. "In fact, we will use the opportunity to upgrade our work in Sulu. We will not be deterred; this will not lessen our determination. In fact, we will use this as an impetus to work more, to do a better job." (Mindanao Examiner)