Both sides resume talks in Kuala Lumpur
MANILA, Philippines – The draft peace proposal submitted by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a copy of which was obtained by AsianCorrespondent, contains several major demands to include two additional Philippine Senate seats for the Bangsamoro “substate” that shall be elected by a subsequent Moro district.
The MILF and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GPH) met on Monday, Aug. 22, 2011, in Kuala Lumpur, to resume peace negotiations aimed at ending four decades of armed conflict in most of the southern areas of Mindanao.
UP Prof. Marvic Leonen, head of the government peace panel, submitted the draft proposal of the government to his MILF counterparts although copies were not made available to the media covering the talks.
Leonen however enumerated 11 general features of the government draft such as government’s recognition of “the identity of the Bangsamoro and its history.”
The resumption of the peace negotiations came 18 days after President Benigno Aquino III held an unprecedented meeting with MILF chair Murad Ibrahim in Japan.
Both Aquino and Murad agreed in that meeting to forge a peace agreement within the term of the Philippine president, which ends in 2016.
In addition to the two Senate seats, the MILF also wants all areas covered by the botched Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) included in the proposed Bangsamoro sub-state as well as a ix-year transition period before the creation of a “Bangsamoro government” and “assembly.”
Charter change
Congress will have to amend the Constitution to accommodate the two additional seats that the MILF is demanding. The Philippine Senate is composed of 24 senators elected at large.
Included in the proposed Bangsamoro substate areas are provinces and cities that are part of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), towns that voted for inclusion in the ARMM and other areas where Muslims are predominant.
The MILF defines the Bangsamoro people as inhabitants of the islands and their descendants prior to the colonization of Mindanao. The Spaniards established garrisons and settlements in some parts of Mindanao in the 18th century before the Americans finally established governance throughout the island at the turn of the 19th century.
The Moro people have waged resistance against the central government that heightened in a war for independence in the 1970s by the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).
When the MNLF signed the 1976 Tripoli Agreement, Muslim scholars and militants broke ranks and formed the MILF, which had sought for the creation of an independent Moro state.
The MILF has since dropped its independence bid in favor of the creation a substate. This requires Charter change.
The Moro rebel group said it expects the Philippine government “to undertake immediate steps and appropriate measures available…to secure adoption of the Article of Amendment” by Philippine Congress.
What’s doable?
But Leonen said the “form of government that should be entrenched should be able to deliver good and effective governance, social services and foster economic development within the soonest possible time.”
The government, he added, will work “with what is available and doable within the next few years” while recognizing the identity of the Bangsamoro.
All previous Philippine governments have insisted on the Philippine Constitution as a framework for negotiations with the MILF.
In 2008, war broke out between the Philippine government and the MILF when the Supreme Court declared the MOA-AD as unconstitutional.
Hundreds of combatants from both sides and civilians were killed in the ensuing clashes while thousands of residents in most areas populated by Muslims fled their homes.
When Aquino assumed the presidency, he vowed to resume the peace process and strike comprehensive peace deal with the MILF.
The MILF is facing serious dissension within its ranks after senior commander Ameril Umra Kato, who led the 2008 attacks, broke ranks and formed his own rebel force, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.
The government has demanded from the MILF a full accounting of Kato’s status.
The MILF, on the other hand, has asked the Philippine government to give it 10 days after the Eid’l Fitr to deal with the Kato issue.
Kato is criticizing the MILF central leadership for abandoning its independence bid.
For a copy of the final working draft submitted by the MILF, click here.
(Newsbreak.ph Editor’s note: The uploaded document is the MILF’s January 2010 draft proposal to the government, which has not changed much ever since. The core substance of the new proposal given recently by the MILF to the GRP panel remains. Our apologies for the confusion.)
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By: Edwin Espejo
Source: Newsbreak.ph, Aug. 23, 2011
To view the original article, click here.
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