MNLF attack is borne out of misinterpretation – Sec. Sadain

From the Philippine Information Agency (Nov 13): MNLF attack is borne out of misinterpretation – Sec. Sadain

The attack of Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF)– Misuari faction fighters last September was a result of their misconception on the government’s statement regarding the closure of the review of the 1996 Peace Agreement at the tripartite level, said Secretary Mehol Sadain of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (MCMF).

Secretary Sadain together with Philippine government chief negotiator, Prof. Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, spoke to the media recently to get a feel of the sentiments of the people here on the ongoing peace talks with the National Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

“What happened in Zamboanga City is not a direct result of the peace process. More probably, it’s a result of the statement of the government that it is putting a closure to the review at the tripartite level, the one that directly impacts on the final peace agreement with the MNLF,” Sadain pointed out.

Sadain explained that “the statement must have been misinterpreted because ‘closure’ does not mean abrogating or abandoning the Final Peace Agreement. In fact, implementation was supposed to go on.”

The Zamboangueño lawyer furthered that the doable in the existing agreement would be implemented, and those which require other interventions will be discussed at a later date.

Sadain added that the government relayed the closure to the Indonesian facilitators of the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC), negating any claims that it was done surreptitiously.

Sadain also believe that the attack staged by the group of Nur Misuari was not about them being left out, ignored, nor the non-implementation of the 1996 peace agreement.

“It’s something else. And it’s something else that exists only in the mind of that particular leader,” Sadain stressed.

http://news.pia.gov.ph/index.php?article=1391384311917