No longer a ‘flower jar’

It was a historic, if not a landmark event, when the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) entered into what is now called a Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro. No less than President Benigno “Noy” Aquino III witnessed the signing of the Framework Agreement on Oct. 15 last year at Malacañang. The top leaders of the MILF led by their chairman Al Haj Murad were all in attendance as the Malaysia-brokered interim peace deal was signed by both sides.

It was signed in behalf of the Philippine government by then peace panel chairman Marvic Leonen, who has since then been appointed as associate justice of the Supreme Court (SC). The MILF was represented by their peace panel chairman Mohagher Iqbal.

To date, both sides have yet to flesh out the Transition Commission as called for in the Framework Agreement. With representatives from the MILF and government side, this 15-man Commission is supposed to work out how to implement the specifics of the Framework Agreement. But the devil is in the details.

In the meantime, President Aquino launched the government socio-economic initiative it called “Sajahatra Bangsamoro” last Feb. 11. It aims to uplift the health, education and livelihood condition of MILF communities. Murad and other MILF leaders and members were given PhilHealth cards as part of this government program for the “Sajahatra Bangsamoro.” The affair was attended by foreign dignitaries led by Malaysian facilitator Tengku Dato Ab’ Ghafar Tengku bin Mohammed and Malaysian head of the secretariat Che Khasna.

Two days later, the President issued Administrative Order 37 creating a Task Force on Bangsamoro Development and named his newly designated Cabinet Secretary Jose Rene Almendras to head this ad hoc body. The President mandated this task force to coordinate with the soon-to-be-formed 15-member Transition Commission that will institutionalize the socio-civic projects for impoverished Bangsamoro areas in Mindanao.

Almendras was quoted as saying these things will be done while negotiations on the Framework Agreement are continuing. This is now the job of Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, who was named by P-Noy to take over from Leonen as the new government peace panel chairperson who has been shuttling to and from Kuala Lumpur to continue the negotiations with the MILF.

While these are taking place, a group of about 300 or so armed men sailed to Sabah last Feb. 13. Their presence immediately sent Malaysian police authorities into heightened alert and placed them in a confined area in Lahad Datu in Sabah. The news reached Manila and caught everyone by surprise on what armed group would pull such a stunt.

As things turned out, the armed men came from Sulu and Tawi-Tawi which are both just one hour away by boat to Sabah. Many of the armed men were identified with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) once headed by chairman Nur Misuari. But the group of armed men was actually led by a brother of Sultan Jamalul Kiram III. They are the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu who have proprietary rights over Sabah, which both the Philippines and Malaysia have ownership claims.

This territorial dispute with Sabah is precisely the argument against Malaysia’s role as a broker in the peace talks with the MILF. When the Philippine government accepted Malaysia to broker the peace talks with the MILF, the claims to Sabah went into dormancy.

Thus, Kiram confirmed his brother went to Sabah to reassert their claims and demand the resumption of rental payment that Malaysia used to pay to the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu. In fact, Kiram said he had instructed his followers to stay put in Lahad Datu because “Sabah is our home.” Malaysian authorities have given them until today to leave Sabah peacefully.

Interviewed by GMA-7 news from his home in Sulu via phone patch yesterday, Kiram vehemently denied he was out to sabotage the peace talks. Kiram pointed out their family suffered enough for the pursuit of peace in Mindanao but the Philippine government has ignored them and kept them out in the peace talks with the MILF.

To prove his point, Kiram particularly deplored how he and his wife were treated “like flower jars” during the signing of the Framework Agreement for the Bangsamoro last October at the Palace.

The re-assertion of the Sabah claim by the Sulu sultanate had reportedly infuriated President Aquino. The Commander-in-chief allegedly sensed sinister plots to sabotage the peace process with the MILF. Among those named part of the plot was Misuari and Kiram, who ran but lost as one of the senatorial candidates of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo during the May 2007 elections.

Misuari admitted some members of his group were among those holed up and engaged in the standoff in Sabah against Malaysian authorities. But Misuari hemmed and hawed on the Palace suspicions on his group’s attempts to sabotage the peace process with the MILF, which broke away from the MNLF.

The Philippine government in September 1996 entered into a formal peace agreement with Misuari’s MNLF that was brokered by Indonesia. But the MILF refused to honor that peace pact and demanded a separate peace deal with the Philippine government.

P-Noy considers Malaysia, as far as the Philippines is concerned, as a neighbor and a fellow member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and such irritant issues of territorial claims should not disturb the peace in the region. Since the Philippine claims on Sabah have lain dormant for so many years already, he asked the Department of Foreign Affairs to dust them off at the archives.

To save his administration’s on-going peace talks with the MILF, the President disclosed he has been talking to stakeholders in the continued standoff in Sabah, including the family of the Sultan, for purposes of achieving peace in the area. P-Noy confirmed this to reporters covering the campaign sorties of his administration-backed senatorial candidates in Iloilo yesterday.

Now that he has P-Noy’s attention, Kiram should no longer feel like a flower jar once he gets a new presidential invitation to attend a function at the Palace.