Misuari team loses in Sulu elections

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Nur Misuari and a ranking subordinate-leader in the Moro National Liberation Front both suffered defeats in their bids for two key elective positions in Sulu, in what peace advocates and religious leaders said, is an indication that the MNLF in the island province is now a virtual spent force.

Misuari ranked third in the outcome of the May 10 gubernatorial elections in Sulu, his third loss since the 2004 elections.

“It is clear now that Nur Misuari and his followers are no longer as influential as they were during the 1970s until they forged a final peace agreement with the Philippine government in 1996,” said an education official in Sulu, who asked not to be identified.

Another source, who belongs to a Christian religious congregation, said voters in Sulu were virtually irked by the spate of bloody incidents in previous years in the province instigated by a renegade follower of Misuari, Ustadz Habier Malik, that caused massive dislocation of innocent Tausog communities.

Re-electionist Sulu Rep. Yusoph Jikiri, who is the chief of the MNLF’s Bangsamoro Army, was also defeated by long-time political warlord Habib Tupay Loong, who had served as governor of Sulu in the 1990s.

Loong’s younger sibling, Benjamin, former vice governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, trailed behind re-elected Sulu Gov. Hadji Sakur Tan in the tally of votes for governor.

For peace advocates and many leaders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Misuari and his forces have long lost their control of the voting masses in Sulu, the supposed birthplace of the MNLF.

Animosity

“The MNLF has lost its grip on people in all of the 18 towns in Sulu due to the rivalry among its leaders that led to its fragmentation into at least seven factions,” said Ustadz Jailana Sahjili, a foreign-trained Tausog Islamic preacher.

While Misuari and Jikiri both lost in their candidacies, two leaders of a dominant faction in the MNLF, the outgoing three-term Cotabato City mayor, Muslimin Sema, and his wife, Bai Sandra, were elected vice mayor here and representative to the congressional seat in the first district of Maguindanao, respectively.

Misuari has a deep-seated animosity with Sema and many MNLF leaders in mainland Mindanao for unseating him as their chairman in April 2000 due to loss of confidence in his leadership.

Sema leads the MNLF faction in Central Mindanao and surrounding regions, whose members include Misuari’s former lieutenants in Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

So monolithic are the MNLF members under Sema that they have started initiating dialogues on how they can help president-apparent Benigno Aquino III in the Mindanao peace process once he has assumed the presidency.

“Some of us are even planning to sign a manifesto endorsing our favored candidate for Speaker of the House,” said a Maranaw MNLF leader, who was a member of Misuari’s regional cabinet when he was governor of ARMM from 1996 to 2001.

“We want a Speaker that will focus on the Mindanao peace process,” seconded another MNLF leader who belongs to the ethnic Maguindanaon tribe and has jurisdiction over a big community of former Moro guerillas in the second district of Maguindanao and the nearby Sultan Kudarat province.