Senior MNLF leaders open camps for gov't check

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - Senior Tausog, Maranaw, Iranun, Yakan and Maguindanaon leaders of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) agreed Wednesday to open their camps for a headcount of  their followers to prove they are intact and are not to rise against government.

The 53 MNLF leaders met at a government-recognized former rebel camp, now a “peace zone,” in the southwest of Datu Odin Sinsuat town in the first district of Maguindanao.

The meeting was jointly organized by former Cotabato City Vice-Mayor Muslimin Sema, chairman of an MNLF faction that has 20 “revolutionary states” in mainland Mindanao and surrounding island provinces, former Assemblyman Hatimil Hassan of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, and former Sulu Gov. Yusoph Jikiri and the group’s most senior leader in Zamboanga City, Abdul Sahrin.

“The meeting was to be held in Pagadian City, but at the last minute we decided to hold it in Maguindanao. Such a gathering can easily be sabotaged if done in Pagadian City, which is within easy reach of our brothers that have chosen the path of war in seeking redress,” said Datun Savedra, chief-of-staff of the MNLF faction led by Sema.

Savedra said participants to the meeting have reached a collective decision to maximize their coordination with the police, the military and the local government units in maintaining law and order in their camps, in the wake of the hostilities being instigated by followers of Nur Misuari.

Savedra said the MNLF leaders from different provinces were also reminded by Sema of their advocacy for the diplomatic resolution of all misunderstandings on the implementation of their now 17-year peace agreement with the national government.

Savedra said they have also reaffirmed, during the meeting, their support to the position of Ekmeleddin Ishanuglo, secretary-general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), to continue with the tripartite review of the government-MNLF peace accord.

The OIC, a bloc of more than 50 Muslim states, including petroleum-exporting countries in the Middle East and North Africa, brokered the peace agreement and now helps in the three-way effort to resolve misunderstandings on its implementation through its Southern Philippines Peace Committee.

The committee is composed of representatives from Libya, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Bangladesh, Somalia, Senegal, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Turkey.

Representatives of the MNLF, Malacañang, and the SPCP were supposed to convene for another round of tripartite talks last August 16 in Indonesia, but the event was postponed on the behest of OIC.

“We were not informed for what reason did the OIC asked for its postponement. We’ll just have to wait and see,” Savedra said.