MNLF’s ‘Top 90’ joins Jabidah rites

From the Manila Bulletin (Mar 21): MNLF’s ‘Top 90’ joins Jabidah rites

Surviving members of the Moro National Liberation Front’s (MNLF) “Top 90” set foot on the island of Corregidor last Tuesday to join the commemoration of the so-called Jabidah massacre, an event in the late 1960s that prompted them to mount a rebellion against the government.

The “Top 90” was the MNLF’s first batch of 90 fighters who trained in guerilla warfare in Jampiras Island in Malaysia. The surviving members joined 200 others from various sectors in the 46th commemoration of the event, jointly organized by the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and the office of Anak-Mindanao Partylist Rep. Sitti Djalia Turabin-Hataman.

At the commemoration rites, Hataman said they would “want to give more emphasis to the historical significance of the Jabidah Massacre” especially in the context of the ongoing Mindanao peace process.

She said the massacre of young Moro recruits on March 18, 1968 was a tragedy that united the Moro people, regardless of tribes and callings, in a fight against injustice and oppression.

In the same manner these days, she said, the final peace pact, set to be signed this month by the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), serves as inspiration that must rally together the Bangsamoro as one.

“This is now the Bangsamoro struggle,” she said.

At least 32 of some 50 surviving members of the MNLF “Top 90” batch met recently to select batch-mate Abukl Khayr Alonto as their chairman, replacing Nur Misuari, whom they accused of various misgivings to the front.

The surviving pioneer batch members passed a manifesto in support of the MILF’s peace process with the government, furnishing personally a copy of the document to MILF Chair Al Haj Murad Ebrahim at their meeting in Cam Darapanan, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao.

Another faction led by former Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema, anointed MNLF chairman by its Council of 15, sent to Bulletin a commemoration message, batting for the harmonization of the intents of the MNLF-government 1996 final peace agreement with the MILF Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro.

http://www.mb.com.ph/mnlfs-top-90-joins-jabidah-rites/