‘Mounting frustration may have emboldened Nur’

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – The mounting frustration of Nur Misuari over three “unresolved topics” in the tripartite review of the 1996 peace accord between the government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) could have emboldened him to create a scenario in Zamboanga City to attract attention.

This was according to Abdul Sahrin, secretary-general of the largest and most politically active MNLF faction led by former Cotabato City vice mayor Muslimin Sema.

Sahrin said Misuari has persistently been urging government to focus attention on the “three issues,” which he believes are essential to the resolution of the misunderstandings on the implementation of the 1996 peace agreement.

“These are the transition mechanism for the implementation of the peace agreement, the conduct of another plebiscite for expanded autonomy, and how to divide earnings from strategic minerals obtainable in the Bangsamoro areas,” Sahrin told The STAR from Zamboanga City yesterday in a mobile phone interview.

Sahrin said the government had repeatedly told Misuari, during past discussions in the tripartite review of the peace agreement, that Malacañang has long addressed all the three issues.

“He (Misuari) found the government’s position on those three issues unacceptable,” Sahrin said.

Sahrin claimed speaking on behalf of the MNLF’s “Sema group,” which has more than 20 revolutionary states scattered in Mindanao, in the island provinces of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, and in Palawan.

Disowned

Sahrin and Sema on Monday disowned the actions by a handful of Misuari’s men involved in the bloody siege of several villages in Zamboanga City.

The tripartite review of the government-MNLF peace agreement, which started in late 2007, involves the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), a block of more than 50 Muslim countries, including the petroleum-exporting states in the Middle East and North Africa.

The OIC helped broker the peace agreement, first through a group of representatives from its Committee of the Eight, then comprised of government officials from Libya, Indonesia, Senegal, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Malaysia, and Brunei.

The committee later became the Southern Philippines Peace Committee (SPPC), whose membership also expanded with the inclusion of representatives from the Turkish and Egyptian governments.

The government stood pat on its assertion that the transition committee for the implementation of the government-MNLF peace agreement was the defunct SPCPD, bilaterally established by both sides and that helped oversee the conduct of the August 2001 plebiscite for expanded autonomy in 13 Southern Mindanao provinces and 14 cities.

Only residents of the island province of Basilan and Marawi City, in Lanao del Sur, voted in favor of the inclusion of their communities into the expanded ARMM, whose original charter, Republic Act 6734, also got amended as RA 9054, as a result of the political exercise.

“While we don’t condone what is happening in Zamboanga City now, we want a peaceful solution to the abnormal situation now gripping parts of the city,” Sahrin said.

Sahrin said the ongoing hostilities between followers of Misuari and government forces would adversely affect the peace process.

“We are against what is happening now. This would not have happened if they did not come to Zamboanga City bringing guns. What do you expect to happen if you come to Zamboanga City after declaring Mindanao independence? Trouble will really happen,” he said.

Sahrin said they have also been receiving persistent feedback from Moro communities in Zamboanga City that Misuari’s most trusted lieutenant, foreign-trained cleric Habier Malik, had arrived from Jolo, Sulu and is now in command of the rebels that laid siege in several areas in the city. – With Perseus Echeminada, Jose Rodel Clapano