Gov't, MNLF panel to iron out kinks in 1996 peace pact

COTABATO CITY – At the behest of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), the government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) will create a joint committee that would look into sensitive provisions of the Sept. 2, 1996 peace agreement.

In a statement, Speaker Paisalin Tago of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, who is part of the government’s delegation to the Feb. 14-16 second tripartite meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, said the OIC has urged the government and the MNLF to organize the committee as soon as possible to hasten the efforts of addressing perceived kinks in the 11-year-old truce.

The OIC, a pan-Islamic block of more than 50 Muslim states, including oil-rich Arab nations in the Middle East, helped broker the final peace pact between the Philippine government and the MNLF.

Tago said their group, led by Deputy Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Hadji Nabil Tan along representatives of the MNLF, discussed with OIC officials the outcome of the initial review of the peace agreement by the five joint working groups (JWGs) in the past weeks.

The creation of the five JWGs, composed of three representatives each from the front and the government and focused on five parameters for the review of the peace pact – Sharia, education, political representation of Moro communities, regional security force, economy and natural resources – was agreed upon by the Philippine government, the MNLF, and the OIC during the Nov. 12-14 first tripartite meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

“We held initial discussions in the group. The discussions were held in an atmosphere of cordiality, in the spirit of Islamic brotherhood,” Tago told The STAR in his e-mailed statement.

The OIC’s secretary-general, Ekmeleddin Ishanuglo, is representing the Islamic body in the tripartite meeting in Istanbul.

The OIC’s spearheading of the tripartite review of the peace agreement was prompted by complaints from the MNLF on alleged misunderstandings on the implementation of some of its sensitive provisions and the government’s non-involvement of qualified leaders in governance.

“We have agreed, along with our brothers in the MNLF, before the OIC people, to really pursue the peaceful resolution of the misunderstandings on certain provisions of the peace pact,” Tago said.

ARMM Gov. Datu Zaldy Ampatuan was to represent the autonomous region in the Istanbul meeting, but asked to be excused due to pressing regional concerns he said he has to personally address.

Tago said he has told Tan, who as governor of the ARMM from 1993 to 1996 helped draft the 1996 truce, that the region’s 24-seat Regional Assembly is now working on the expansion of the coverage of Sharia jurisprudence in the autonomous region.

The MNLF wants the Sharia justice system strengthened in Moro communities in the south. The national judiciary has long established Sharia courts in parts of the country, but only for litigation of personal, family and marital laws.

“In essence, the OIC wants the GRP and MNLF to achieve tangible breakthroughs in this tripartite initiative of settling all misunderstandings on the peace agreement,” Tago said.      – John Unson