How do you solve that problem like Misuari?

If the Zamboanga crisis were an inter-union labor dispute, the Government as the virtual  "employer''  and both the MNLF and the MILF, as contending ''unions'' could be  locked in a dispute involving UNFAIR LABOR DISPUTE or ULP. In labor relations parlance, ULP is supposed to be committed when, among other modes, management unjustly favors one of the contending unions and negotiate with the favored one a collective bargaining agreement, and entirely ignores the other labor organization. The choice of an exclusive bargaining representative is not vested by law in the hands of the employer. This the sovereign right of the general membership.

By analogy, the bangsa moro is not united. It is wracked by many divisions, fragmented by various factions. There is no single group that has been chosen in a free and general elections by all its members. Every faction claims to represent the entire bangsa moro. But every such claim is always contested and opposed, refuted and demolished by the others. And so, when the government negotiators, with the authority and blessings of the president has signed an agreement with the MILF, it was taking a huge risk. It stands to be opposed and questioned by the MNLF. This, and no other reason is the direct cause that led to the somehow reckless adventurism of Nur Misuari when he declared independence and allegedly ordered the Zamboanga siege. By all appearances, it is a rebellion.

We cannot repel a rebellion by merely killing the rebels. A rebellion is anchored on a higher purpose, a great idea that moves people to action. The only way to ''kill'' an idea is by a greater idea. This is not about Misuari. He is only a symbol, he is only the face that personifies the struggles of the bangsa moro people. This about a cause that led people to offer their lives as mujahiddins, a warrior for the liberation of a people who strongly believes that they are victims, that they have been subjected to injustice. There indeed is no love greater than that when men are willing and ready to give up their lives for the sake of friends, of brothers, of countrymen. And this has come into the fore largely because of their leader Nur Misuari.

And so, while we say that this is not about Nur, to solve this dilemma, we need to study the man. Nurallaj Misuari was born in Jolo, Sulu, on March 3, 1939. He is now 74 years old, reportedly suffering from a debilitating disease. Nonetheless, albeit old and sickly, he has been around, wounded and scarred, both physically and figuratively, in the battlefields of life, fighting for the cause of his people. Still brimming with vigor and passion to push his struggle to its rightful end, Misuari appears to command the loyalty and respect of his followers, enough for hundreds, if not thousands of them, to risk their lives, challenging the might of the country's better-armed and better-trained armed forces.

Nur was a student activist in UP in the late sixties and the seventies. He was one of the stalwarts of KABATAANG MAKABAYAN, under the tutelage and influence of the leftist ideologue Jose Maria Sison. In 1961, Nur founded the MIM or Mindanao Independence Movement, which was later transformed into MNLF, Mindanao National Liberation Front. He engaged in armed struggle against the government from 1972 to 1976.  He exiled himself to Saudi Arabia in 1986 after the ouster of President Marcos. He signed a peace agreement with President FVR in 1990. The ARMM or Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao was established and Nur became its governor. When GMA came to power, Nur was arrested and jailed for terrorism. He was released on bail in 2005. He resumed his armed struggle just recently when the government only dealt with the rival MILF.

How do you solve that problem like Misuari? Let us bring him to the bargaining table. There should be a political solution to this dilemma. An idea can be defeated only by a greater idea. And the idea of peace is always greater than the idea of war. Mark my word: There will never be peace in Mindanao if we keep on excluding such a formidable man like Nur, such a formidable force like the MNLF. If this were a labor problem, conciliation is the better option than a strike or a lockout. Let us give peace another chance.