Nur Misuari once famously sighed that waging a rebellion was easier than governance. This was when he was governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao – his prize for forging peace between his Moro National Liberation Front and the Ramos administration in 1996.
The landmark peace agreement brought many MNLF members into the social mainstream, raising hopes for peace in the Muslim region. But the ARMM suffered from weak governance. MNLF members also found themselves confronting their breakaway faction, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
By most indications, the founding MNLF chieftain proved to be an ineffective ARMM governor. Allegations of corruption hounded Misuari’s government, and the ARMM struggled to be lifted from poverty and underdevelopment. Lines between public and private funds were blurred, with the ARMM arsenal serving as Misuari’s own but built up using people’s money. In 2000, MNLF members ousted him as their chairman and fielded Parouk Hussin to replace him as ARMM governor. The national government also sought an accounting from Misuari for P43 billion in ARMM funds.
With his hold on power crumbling, Misuari loyalists attacked Army outposts in Sulu on Nov. 19, 2001. His nephew Julhambri Misuari also led some 300 MNLF loyalists in taking over the Cabatangan government complex in Zamboanga city, holding local residents hostage. By the time the “mini rebellion” was quelled, some 100 people were dead and many others wounded.
In 2013, as the Misuari faction of the MNLF felt left out in the peace process with the MILF, Misuari loyalists again attacked Zamboanga, laying siege to the city for nearly three weeks. About 25 people were killed and the house-to-house combat displaced an estimated 100,000 people.
Now President Duterte has plucked Misuari from his legal woes and given the MNLF founder yet another chance to work for peace. For understandable reasons, there are groups particularly in Zamboanga that harbor misgivings about this peace initiative with a man who has a record of using power for personal purposes. At the start of a new administration, however, the President can still ask the nation to support his peace efforts. Misuari is being given a golden chance to reinvent himself. The least that he can do is to make sure he will not disappoint a trusting President.