MILF invites Pope

From the Manila Bulletin (Dec 25): MILF invites Pope

In an unprecedented move, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) invited Pope Francis to make a side trip to Cotabato City during his visit to the country next month.

But it was not immediately known whether Pope Francis received the invitation-letter written by MILF Chairman Al-Haji Murad Ebrahim.

But based on the Pope’s itinerary, the pontiff’s only trip outside Metro Manila is to Tacloban City on January 17, 2015, where he is scheduled to meet survivors of super-typhoon “Yolanda” (Haiyan) that pummeled Eastern Visayas on Nov. 8, 2013.

Pope Francis will be in the Philippines from January 15-19, 2015.

Details of the letter were not clear. However, one of the highlights of the letter was Ebrahim requesting the Pope to speak to the Bangsamoro people and endorse the Mindanao peace process between the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the MILF.

Ebrahim’s letter to Pope Francis was coursed through Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Cardinal Quevedo, who is based in Cotabato City.

While in Metro Manila, the Pope will be at events in Malacañang, the Manila Cathedral, the University of Santo Tomas (UST), and the Mall of Asia (MOA) Arena.

The MILF request for the Pope to say something about the Mindanao peace process comes at a crucial stage of the 17-year-old negotiations, vis-a-vis the submission of the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) to Congress by President Aquino and its deliberations by the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Now filed in Congress as House Bill No. 4994, its public hearings are now in the penultimate stage. If passed and signed by the President, the BBL will be the implementing vehicle for the March 27, 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), which GPH and MILF forged after long and protracted peace talks punctuated by an all-out war, an all-out offensive, and many eruptions of fighting.

The Mindanao conflict, starting with the separatist rebellion of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in the early 1970s, killed over 100,000 people, spilling rivers of blood in what is known as the “Land of Promise.”

Meanwhile, the Imam Council of the Philippines (ICOP) has lauded the inclusion of two Muslim leaders in the Pope’s dialogue to be held at the UST on January 18 with leaders of other Christian sects and other faith traditions, including Islam and Buddhism, etc.

The Archbishop of Manila, Luis Antonio G. Cardinal Tagle, D.D., invited Prof. Julkipli Wadi, dean of the University of the Philippines-Institute of Islamic Studies (UP-IIS), and Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Supt. Ebra Moxsir of the PNP Chaplain Service.

“We welcome the participation of Muslims in the papal dialogue,” said ICOP Chairman Aleem Ahmad Said Basher. Moxsir is ICOP president.

http://www.mb.com.ph/milf-invites-pope/