2 MNLF leaders run for mayor in Mindanao

From the Philippine Star (Mar 26): 2 MNLF leaders run for mayor in Mindanao



Flag of the Moro National Liberation Front

Two top leaders of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) are aspiring for the mayoral posts in two Mindanao cities they each served as mayor for three consecutive terms after the crafting of the group’s final truce with Malacañang in 1996.

Muslimin Sema and his long-time revolutionary comrade, Solitario Ali, former mayors of the cities of Cotabato and Marawi, respectively, have started campaigning on Saturday.

The duo made part of their separate campaign pitches their renewal of commitments to the Southern Mindanao peace process and to a continuing advocacy for interfaith and cultural solidarity among southerners to hasten the attainment of peace and development in the two cities and elsewhere.

Unlike some former Moro rebels who first surrendered and availed of government amnesty before joining mainstream politics, Sema and Ali remained as revolutionaries from the time they joined the group as young idealists in the 1970s until the crafting on Sept. 2, 1996 of their final compact with the government, then under President Fidel Ramos.

Ali had undergone masteral study on development management at the Asian Institute of Management. He authored Marawi City's 10-year solid waste management plan while he was its city mayor. 

Sema has had extensive exposure on peace and governance studies in the late 1990s, sponsored by different foreign donors helping push the Mindanao peace process forward, among them the Canadian International Development Agency, benefactor of the ten-year Local Government Support Program in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Sema and Ali were recipients of many awards and citations, on governance, on public administration and for their involvement in peace advocacy programs while they were still mayors.

“Until now we are proud members of the MNLF and we are strong partners of the government in finding lasting negotiated political solution to the Mindanao Moro issue,” said Sema, chairman of one of three factions in the front, founded jointly in the 1970s by Nur Misuari and Egyptian-trained cleric Imam Salamat Hashim.

Hashim, born in Pagalungan town in Maguindanao, eventually bolted from the MNLF in the late 1970s due to irresolvable differences with Misuari, who hails from Sulu, and established the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Unlike Misuari, who is so opposed to the ongoing government-MILF peace overture, Sema and Ali are both visibly friendly to the breakaway group.

Ali, who is of pure Maranaw descent, leads a bloc of MNLF members in Marawi City, in Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte and in nearby areas in Administrative Region 10.

Followers told The STAR Ali remained unquestionably loyal to the 1996 government-MNLF peace accord despite misunderstandings on the implementation of many of its sensitive provisions.

“He never spoke ill against the government for not having complied with some provisions of the peace pact. He just supported all peaceful means of addressing the snags in the implementation of the peace agreement,” a Maranaw elder, who asked not to be identified for his being a career government official, told The STAR.

The groups led by Sema and Ali also both stood down calmly and did not participate in the deadly September 2013 siege of Zamboanga City by some comrades in other MNLF factions, asserting they adhere to their peace agreement with Malacañang and that misunderstandings on the implementation of some of its provisions are best addressed via dialogues mediated by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

The OIC, an organization of more than 50 Muslim states, including petroleum-exporting countries in the Middle East and North Africa, helped broker the 1996 government-MNLF truce.

Sema and Ali have not been opposing too Malacañang’s dealings with the MILF, which splintered from the MNLF in the early 1980s.

“The MNLF and the MILF are fighting for only one Bangsamoro people. While the Bangsamoro is comprised of different groups having different tribal identities, all wants peace and achievable development in their communities,” Sema said.

Ali’s brother, Fahad, now outgoing mayor of Marawi City, is aspiring for the gubernatorial post of Lanao del Sur. Fahad’s third and last term as Marawi City mayor will end on June 30, 2016.

http://www.philstar.com/nation/2016/03/26/1566311/2-mnlf-leaders-run-mayor-mindanao