On Jabidah anniversary, Muslims told to pursue peace

COTABATO CITY, Philippines  --- On the commemoration of the 45th anniversary of the Jabidah Massacre,  residents here were urged to pursue a peaceful resolution to the Sabah crisis.

The largest faction of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), which hosted Monday a banquet here in  honor of those who perished in the March 18, 1968 massacre in Corregidor, said local sectors  pursue their quest for self-rule through peaceful means.

Hundreds also participated in a “peace rally” here Monday, to mark the anniversary of the Jabidah Massacre. Most of those who attended the peace rally carried placards bearing appeals for the peaceful resolution of the Sabah crisis to sustain the momentum of the on-going peace talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Bobby Benito, founding-director of the Bangsamoro Center for Just Peace, said the Philippine and Malaysian governments should treat the Sabah issue as “absolutely separate” from the GPH-MILF talks to ensure the continuity of the now 16-year peace overture.

“They should be treated as two separate, non-related issues. We always pray for a peaceful end to the Sabah conflict. It pains us to see Muslims there fighting Muslims,” said Benito, whose office helped organize the peace rally at the Tantawan Park here.

For Moro historians, sociology and political science professors, the Jabidah Massacre triggered the Moro rebellion and ushered the births of the Mindanao Independence Movement; the Moro National Liberation Front; and later, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

The GPH-MILF talks started January 7, 1997, but  were repeatedly punctuated by hostilities in areas supposedly covered by a ceasefire crafted by both sides. In 2004, the negotiations gained momentum with the “third party facilitation” of Malaysia.

“The peace negotiation entered into by the GPH and MILF is the best, most peaceful method in addressing the decades-old Bangsamoro issue. We, therefore, must sustain and help keep it going,” Benito said.

The MNLF group led by Cotabato City Vice-Mayor Muslimin Sema said the Jabidah incident ought to be remembered yearly as the “spiritual force” that inspired Moro sectors to rise and forge ahead with their struggle for recognition as a community already existing even before the Philippines became an independent state.

Sema’s group, which has more than 20 “revolutionary states” scattered across Mindanao, is touted as the largest of three factions in the MNLF, which signed a final peace pact with the national government on September 2, 1996.

Sema, however, said the best way to pursue Moro governance and the political empowerment of the Moro people and non-Muslim indigenous groups in Mindanao is through democratic  “problem-solving” dialogues that include the national government.

“We are also for the peaceful resolution of the Sabah conflict. Malaysia has never been an enemy of the Bangsamoro people. It has been a `big brother’ to us for many decades now, “Sema said.

Officials of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, led by Gov. Mujiv Hataman, attended Monday’s commemoration of the Jabidah Massacre in Corregidor, an event graced by President Benigno Aquino III.

ARMM residents observed Monday as non-working holiday.  March 18 has been declared the Bangsamoro Day in the autonomous region.

The Jabidah Massacre is known as the infamous slaughter of dozens of mutinous Moro military recruits during the Marcos regime. The Armed Forces of the Philippines was supposedly training them for a covert operation aimed at regaining control of the resource-rich Sabah.

The slain trainees were said to have staged a mutiny over non-payment of the allowances promised to them and for lack of food and medical attention while undergoing military training in preparation for their mission to incite an uprising in Sabah with the aim of severing Malaysia’s dominion over the island.