MNLF commemorates 27th year of peace deal with government

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Members of the Moro National Liberation Front on Saturday commemorated the 27th anniversary of their truce with Malacañang and pledged to continue patronizing all on-going bilateral government-MNLF peace programs.

Some 3,000 representatives and senior officials of various MNLF groups in central Mindanao participated in the event, held at the municipal gymnasium in Pikit town in Cotabato province.

The chairman of the MNLF’s central committee, Muslimin Sema, told reporters Sunday the event was simple but memorable being their fourth since they have fused ranks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in overseeing the now four-year MILF-led regional government of the Bangsamoro region.

“We are together now in addressing peace and security issues, poverty and underdevelopment caused by armed conflicts,” Sema, who is current regional labor minister of the Bangsamoro region, said.

Rebel negotiators and the administration of President Fidel Valdez Ramos forged on September 2, 1996 the government-MNLF peace agreement in Jakarta in Indonesia, brokered by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, a bloc of more than 60 Muslim states, including petroleum-exporting nations in the Middle East and North Africa.

The MILF has a separate compact with the government, the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro, that resulted in the setting up of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in 2019 that replaced the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, established 29 years before.

Malacañang’s peace agreements with the MNLF and the MILF enjoins both groups to help the police and military enforce law and order in predominantly Moro southern provinces and cities.

Local executives from different towns and officials of non-government peace-advocacy groups also participated in Saturday’s symbolic gathering of MNLF officials and members in Pikit, home to mixed Muslim and Christian communities that are still struggling to bounce back from the adverse effects of secessionist conflicts in decades past.