OIC: Carry out 1996 MNLF pact in full

MANILA, Philippines - The Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) yesterday urged the Philippine government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) to enter into a “compromise solution” for the full implementation of the 1996 final peace agreement signed with the Ramos administration by former MNLF chairman Nur Misuari.

Ambassador Saed Kassem El-Masry, representative of OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ilgsanoghu, made the call to the GRP and MNLF during the conclusion of the third session of the GRP-MILF-OIC tripartite meeting at the Heritage Hotel in Pasay City.

El-Masry said he was glad that the GRP and MNLF peace panels have agreed to create their respective legal panels to study the remaining five unresolved issues for the comprehensive implementation of the 1996 peace accord.

“We are all filled with hope that this meeting will achieve the aspired goal of reaching compromise solutions based on the concept of a full and comprehensive implementation of the 1996 peace agreement,” El-Masry said.

The conference issued a joint communiqué announcing the success of the three-day meeting and a proposal for the establishment of a peace and development fund mechanism for Mindanao to be supported by the OIC’s member-countries and special bodies.

The legal panels from both sides must nominate the members of the panel by March 20 and conclude its work within 30 days.

El-Masry said the peace process “will bring about security, prosperity, and development for all Filipinos, and not just in the south.”

He lauded President Arroyo for her efforts to achieve lasting peace in Mindanao, adding it is about time that genuine peace in southern Philippines is achieved.

Nur Misuari, founding chairman of the MNLF, was elated over the results of the tripartite meeting and said that the cycle of war must be stopped.

Undersecretary Nabil Tan of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process said the outcome of the tripartite meeting is leading to the government’s quest for lasting peace in the country.

“It is a step forward in the continuing quest for lasting peace in the country,” Tan said.

Hope springs eternal

Peace activists, businessmen, and religious leaders in Cotabato City were also elated with the consensus reached by the parties.           

“The Mindanao problem is best resolved through peaceful dialogues, not through the barrels of guns. Let’s continue praying for the success of all peaceful means of addressing all the problems besetting Southern Mindanao,” said Oblate priest Eliseo Mercado Jr., director of the Institute on Autonomy and Governance.

Tan, vice governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao from 1993 to 1996, expressed gratitude to the OIC, the MNLF and the leaders in the autonomous region “for supporting the initiative extensively.”          

The OIC, a pan-Islamic bloc of more than 50 Muslim countries, including wealthy Arab petroleum-exporting states, helped broker the GRP-MNLF peace agreement.

The truce paved the way for the assimilation of MNLF members into the mainstream and the integration of some 7,000 Muslim guerrillas into the police and the Armed Forces.

The tripartite review of the peace pact was held by the MNLF’s persistent ranting on the government’s alleged non-compliance with some of its major provisions, once highlighted with a bloody mutiny led by Misuari in Jolo, Sulu in 2001.

Local and regional officials in the ARMM took turns pledging support for the tripartite effort of amending the region’s charter to expand its political and administrative powers.

“We will never hesitate to support anything that can accelerate the attainment of peace and development in the ARMM and surrounding provinces where there are communities,” Tawi-Tawi Vice Gov. Ruby Sahali said.

Businessman Pete Marquez, an official of the Metro Cotabato Business Chamber, said traders in Mindanao are also for the peaceful resolution of security problems in the region and nearby provinces.   

The ARMM’s representative to the tripartite evaluation of the peace agreement, Gov. Datu Zaldy Ampatuan, said all of the more than 100 mayors and five provincial governors in the autonomous region are not opposed to amending Republic Act 9054.

“I’ve not heard of a single mayor or provincial governor in the ARMM speak bad about the government’s separate peace efforts with the MNLF and the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front) either. That’s an indication that we’re all for lasting peace in our region,” Ampatuan said.

Tan said the legal panel that would study possible amendments to the ARMM charter based on five concerns – Sharia, political representation of Moro communities, education, regional security force, and natural resources – would be composed of five lawyers each from the government and the MNLF. – With John Unson