CAMP DARAPANAN, Maguindanao, Philippines –This year will be remembered for the signing of a peace agreement between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
Muslims, Christians and Lumad communities are optimistic the Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro (CAB), signed on March 27 will usher lasting peace in Southern Mindanao, where Muslim rebels have been fighting for self-rule since the early 70s.
This year was also when the MILF began its conversion from a revolutionary organization into a political entity in a bid to pursue its peace and development goals through governance.
From Dec. 23 to 25, the MILF had the symbolic launching of its United Bangsamoro Justice Party at its Camp Darapanan in Sultan Kudarat. Thousands of MILF members and supporters joined the activity and pledged allegiance to the party.
MILF chief Al-Haj Murad Ebrahim said they would field candidates for elective positions in the planned Bangsamoro government in 2016.
The enabling measure for the creation of the Bangsamoro entity, the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law, is expected to be passed into law early next year.
The bill, once enacted and ratified via a plebiscite, will replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao with the MILF-led Bangsamoro entity.
Bangsamoro gov’t
The MILF is confident the Bangsamoro government can address peace and security concerns in the region.
Muhaquer Iqbal, chairman of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission, said the Bangsamoro government would need the support of all sectors to succeed.
He said the MILF would cease to exist as a revolutionary organization once the Bangsamoro government is in place.
“It will become a diplomatic socio-economic and political arm of the Bangsamoro people that will continue to struggle for peace and development and the full realization of their aspiration for self-governance in the context of the right-to-self determination doctrine,” Iqbal said.
17 years of negotiations
He said the government-MILF peace efforts could be considered as Asia’s longest peace process, given the time spent on negotiations and in addressing the challenges and constraints both parties met along the way.
Peace talks between the government and the MILF started on Jan. 7, 1997, about three months after the MNLF’s Nur Misuari and former President Fidel Ramos forged a final peace accord, which the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) helped broker.
Several member-countries of the OIC, a bloc of more than 50 Muslim states, including petroleum-exporting nations in the Middle East and North Africa, have also been helping push the peace efforts forward.
The government-MILF ceasefire is being monitored with the help of the International Monitoring Team, which is composed of military personnel from Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and Libya, and non-uniformed conflict resolution experts from Norway, Japan and the European Union.
http://www.luwaran.com/index.php/guest-article/item/1432-yearender-milf-from-revolutionary-group-to-political-entity
This year was also when the MILF began its conversion from a revolutionary organization into a political entity in a bid to pursue its peace and development goals through governance.
From Dec. 23 to 25, the MILF had the symbolic launching of its United Bangsamoro Justice Party at its Camp Darapanan in Sultan Kudarat. Thousands of MILF members and supporters joined the activity and pledged allegiance to the party.
MILF chief Al-Haj Murad Ebrahim said they would field candidates for elective positions in the planned Bangsamoro government in 2016.
The enabling measure for the creation of the Bangsamoro entity, the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law, is expected to be passed into law early next year.
The bill, once enacted and ratified via a plebiscite, will replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao with the MILF-led Bangsamoro entity.
Bangsamoro gov’t
The MILF is confident the Bangsamoro government can address peace and security concerns in the region.
Muhaquer Iqbal, chairman of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission, said the Bangsamoro government would need the support of all sectors to succeed.
He said the MILF would cease to exist as a revolutionary organization once the Bangsamoro government is in place.
“It will become a diplomatic socio-economic and political arm of the Bangsamoro people that will continue to struggle for peace and development and the full realization of their aspiration for self-governance in the context of the right-to-self determination doctrine,” Iqbal said.
17 years of negotiations
He said the government-MILF peace efforts could be considered as Asia’s longest peace process, given the time spent on negotiations and in addressing the challenges and constraints both parties met along the way.
Peace talks between the government and the MILF started on Jan. 7, 1997, about three months after the MNLF’s Nur Misuari and former President Fidel Ramos forged a final peace accord, which the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) helped broker.
Several member-countries of the OIC, a bloc of more than 50 Muslim states, including petroleum-exporting nations in the Middle East and North Africa, have also been helping push the peace efforts forward.
The government-MILF ceasefire is being monitored with the help of the International Monitoring Team, which is composed of military personnel from Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and Libya, and non-uniformed conflict resolution experts from Norway, Japan and the European Union.
http://www.luwaran.com/index.php/guest-article/item/1432-yearender-milf-from-revolutionary-group-to-political-entity
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