Stakeholders elated over diplomatic engagement with government

From the Philippine Star (Aug 13): Stakeholders elated over diplomatic engagement with government



Philippine government officials flash the peace sign after a closed-door meeting with leaders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Courtesy of ARMM Information Director Amir Mawallil

The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) was elated with the resumption on Saturday of the diplomatic engagement between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and Malacañang.

Presidential Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza and MILF’s Muhaquer Iqbal, chairman of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC), met in Malaysia Saturday and discussed the “implementation phase” of all stalled peace compacts crafted in years past.

“We are glad that the bilateral efforts of the government, now under President Rodrigo Duterte, and our brothers in the MILF is again moving forward,” said Muslimin Sema, chairman of the largest and most politically-active group in the MNLF.

The government-MILF peace overture was stymied by the recent synchronized local and national elections.

Unlike MNLF founder Nur Misuari, who has a separate group, Sema and his followers are not opposed to the now 19-year peace overture between the national government and the MILF.

Also present in Saturday’s government-MILF dialogue in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia were ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman, his regional information assistant, Amir Mawallil, and Hermogenes Esperon, Jr. of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency.   

In a statement emailed to The STAR Saturday, Hataman said the ARMM government is committed to the Mindanao peace process and shall continue with its programs meant to promote peace and security in underdeveloped areas in the autonomous region.

“The only solution to the Mindanao Moro rebellion is a peaceful, negotiated solution. Nothing else can solve the problem,” Hataman said in his email.

Hataman also reiterated his promise to step down and facilitate a transition from the ARMM to any political mechanism the MILF and Duterte may possibly establish as a settlement.

Hataman, who was elected to a second term last May 9, has been implementing since 2012 various humanitarian and infrastructure projects in ARMM towns where there are MILF camps in support of the normalization agenda of the peace process.

Dureza presided over a dialogue, last August 9 in Davao City, with Sema and other MNLF officials from across Mindanao, where they discussed Duterte’s “peace roadmap” for Mindanao.

The dialogue was attended by MNLF leaders Yusoph Jikiri of Sulu, Hatimil Hassan of Basilan, Punduma Sani of Lanao de Sur, Utto Salem Cutan of Sarangani and Montaha Babao of Palawan.

“The meeting was fruitful and it inspired us more to support the president’s peace program for the Moro homeland,” Sema said.

The group of Sema and the MILF had twice signed in the past nine months separate deals binding both sides to cooperate in finding a common solution to the decades-old Moro problem.

The MNLF signed a peace pact with Malacanang on Sept. 2, 1996, then still a monolithic organization led by Misuari.

The MILF, which splintered from the MNLF in the early 1980s, has two separate compacts with the national government, the October 15, 2013 Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro (FAB) and the March 27, 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro (CAB).

The CAB, however, failed to take off due to the failure of Congress to approve the enabling measure for its implementation, the Bangsamoro Basic Law, during the time of President Benigno Aquino III.

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2016/08/13/1613083/stakeholders-elated-over-diplomatic-engagement-government