Normalcy restored in Palimbang villages after MILF infighting died down

From The Standard (Aug 19): Normalcy restored in Palimbang villages after MILF infighting died down

SECURITY forces are massing around the suspected hideout of Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) founder Nur Misuari in a move apparently calculated to derail looming talks with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the MNLF claimed on Tuesday.

Also on Tuesday, Mohagher Iqbal, chief peace negotiator of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), said Congress should pass “a good Bangsamoro Basic Law” or the Philippine government will be answerable to the international community.

MNLF spokesman Absalom Cerveza, however, said the deployment of security forces in the vicinity of Indanan, Sulu was an apparent attempt to derail a meeting with OIC officials who are seeking to reconcile the BBL with the 1996 Jakarta agreement that the government signed with the MNLF.

Cerveza said the meeting with OIC officials is scheduled for September 6 in Manila and it is meant to include the terms of the 1996 Jakarta agreement in the controversial BBL which has been criticized as having excluded key sectors in Mindanao society.

“The OIC initiated [the meeting] and we responded favorably, but it appears the government now wants to embarrass the OIC by creating a scenario which will be inimical to the interest of peace in Mindanao,” Cerveza said.

“The MNLF is very disappointed with this government because while the OIC made the overtures to see if we can still come and negotiate in the negotiating table or not, the government is blocking it,” said Cerveza, who has been tasked to represent Misuari in the talks.

Cerveza said he was supposed to meet with Misuari on Tuesday, but the meeting was postponed after the revelation of the deployment of forces in Indanan under the pretext of a continuing military operation against the Abu Sayyaf Group which also operates within Indanan.

“Whoever is responsible for this plan should think twice. We do not want to shed blood just because of the mischievous misadventure of some people in government,” Cerveza said. “We do not want to plunge the country in more turmoil.”

“Their plan to arrest Misuari could trigger renewed war,” he warned.

Meanwhile, Iqbal said in a recent forum that the Philippine government will be answerable to the international community, if Congress fails to pass “a good Bangsamoro Basic Law,” according to the MILF website luwaran.com.

“Ninety-nine percent of the international community is supporting the passage of a good BBL. If the MILF does not accept the BBL, the government will have to answer to the international community”, Iqbal said.

The forum, “Peace at last?” was organized by the Moro Christian People’s Alliance (MCPA) and the Pilgrims for Peace, held at the National Council of Churches of the Philippines in Quezon City.

It was a rare occasion that Iqbal appeared in a discussion with progressives after the 2012 signing of the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB).

Iqbal said the international community has “a deep involvement” in the peace negotiations between the Philippine government and the MILF in the past 17 years.

“The international community would take the government to task if war breaks out,” Iqbal said. “We will have the moral ascendancy if the exit agreement is not signed…We will blame and shame the GPH for not complying with agreements signed by both parties.”

The exit agreement is the final document to be signed by the two parties, and to be validated by the third party monitoring team, headed by former European Commission envoy to the Philippines Alistair McDonald.

Both House Bill 5811 and Senate Bill 2408 are still under deliberations in congress with most of their original provisions were either deleted or amended.

The MILF had repeated said that they will not accept a BBL based on HB 5811, which they described as “50 percent bad” and “lower than the ARMM,” the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao. The ARMM was the result of the government’s peace agreement with the MNLF.

The BBL will entrench the new Bangsamoro political entity as provided by the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro and the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro signed by the government and the MILF.

“Very clear, we will not accept it, if it’s lower than ARMM,” Iqbal answered at the forum, to the question, “What will the MILF do if a diluted BBL is passed?”

The small audience of progressive leaders and church workers who are mostly critical of the BBL loudly applauded and cheered. Their cheers were considered an expression of support to Moro’s quest for lasting peace and progress in their homeland.

http://manilastandardtoday.com/2015/08/19/mnlf-plan-vs-nur-meant-to-shame-oic/