Ex-MNLF leaders dismiss Nur's threats

COTABATO CITY, Philippines  --- Former senior officials of the Moro National Liberation Front has raised doubts over the threat of Nur Misuari, the group's founding chairman, to pursue Moro independence under the group.

Misuari signed on behalf of the MNLF a final peace deal with the government on September 2, 1996.

“There is no more `Moro independence’ to speak about when the then solid MNLF agreed to a final peace accord with the government that was under President Fidel Ramos at that time,” a Maranaw former lieutenant of Misuari, who asked not to be identified, told the Star.

Misuari now leads one of at least three factions in the MNLF, which was  first split by factional divides in April 2000.

The largest MNLF group, led by former Cotabato City Vice-Mayor Muslimin Sema, has kept mum on Misuari’s statements.

Followers of Sema here said they will  comply with  GPH-MNLF accord, optimistic that the Aquino administration will still pursue the completion of its tripartite review, which started in 2007.

The three-way effort, which involves the MNLF, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and representatives from Malacañang and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, is aimed at addressing misunderstandings on certain provisions of the peace agreement.

Moro lawyers here sympathetic to Sema’s group, which has more than 20 “revolutionary states” scattered across the ARMM and Palawan, said Misuari could even be construed to have waived his interest on the tripartite review of the GPH-MNLF accord when he ran for governor of ARMM and lost during the May 2013 polls.

“It was a very clear indication that he was no longer interested in waiting for the outcome of the tripartite review which aims to improve Muslim autonomy, or the ARMM per se, which he had branded as `paper autonomy’ and whose empowerment he had sought via the tripartite review,” said a Maguindanaon lawyer, who was a member of the ARMM cabinet when Misuari was governor of the region.

The tripartite review of the GPH-MNLF 1996 peace deal involves the OIC’s Southern Philippines Peace Committee, which is comprised of representatives from Several Muslim states, among them Libya, Indonesia, Senegal, Pakistan, Turkey, and Bangladesh.

The peace committee is chaired by the government of Indonesia, which is also involved in the GPH-MILF peace overture.

Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Quintos-Deles, who is in Jakarta Friday to discuss with Indonesia’s minister for foreign affairs, Marty Natalegawa, the status of the still unfinished review of the GPH-MNLF peace pact, said the government is bent on completing the process.

Deles in an emailed statement, said Natalegawa reiterated Indonesia's  support to the efforts being undertaken by the GPH to ensure a comprehensive political settlement of the armed conflict in the Southern Philippines.

“He (Natalegawa) was categorical in stating that Indonesia opposes any attempt to jeopardize the territorial integrity of the Philippines and that any such move falls outside the ambit of the agreed upon Tripartite Review Process,” Deles said.