MNLF glad with Malacañang's 'patronage' of Mindanao peace process

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The Moro National Liberation Front appreciates the pronouncement by President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. to have the unimplemented provisions of the government-MNLF peace pact reviewed and addressed to sustain its dividends achieved over the decades.

The government and the MNLF forged on Sept. 2, 1996 a final peace agreement brokered by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, a bloc of more than 50 Muslim nations, including petroleum-exporting states in the Middle East and North Africa.

The now 28-year government-MNLF truce that ended the front’s bloody struggle for peace and development in Moro communities via self-governance was premised on two accords crafted prior by negotiators of both sides, the Dec. 23, 1976 Tripoli Agreement that they signed in Tripoli, Libya, and, subsequently, the Jeddah Accord, drafted from January 3 to 4 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Bangsamoro Regional Labor and Employment Minister Muslimin Sema, who is chairman of the MNLF, told reporters in Cotabato City on Saturday, November 30, that they are thankful to President Marcos, Jr. for his interest in sustaining the gains of their peace overture with Malacañang.

“In his recent pronouncements, President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. appeared interested in protecting the gains of our peace deal with the national government. That is something we are so grateful about. We in the MNLF value that peace agreement with great importance,” Sema said.

Leaders of the MNLF and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are together managing a number of agencies in the now five-year Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The BARMM, whose regional government is being run by an 80-member parliament, is a product of two decades of peace talks between the government and the MILF.

The BARMM was established via a plebiscite in five southern provinces and three cities in early 2019, replacing the then 27-year and now defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao that has lesser administrative and political powers.

“The president had appointed certain members of the present 80-seat Bangsamoro regional parliament that did not support his candidacy for president during the 2022 elections. That, for us, is good. No political vendetta on his part,” Sema said.

Sema, who had served as mayor of Cotabato City for three consecutive terms, told reporters that the implementation in “letter and spirit” of the government’s separate compacts with the MNLF and the MILF will put a durable closure to the “Moro issue” hounding Southern Mindanao since the late 1960s.

“We in the MNLF also value the role of former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte in the setting up of the BARMM, which was created during his tenure,” Sema, speaking on the MNLF’s behalf, said.

He said the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity, under Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., also has various programs complementing the joint peace and development initiatives of the MNLF and the MILF.