‘Delaying negotiations poses a threat’

KUALA LUMPUR:  The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has warned that any delay in concluding the negotiations on the annexes to the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) will pose a threat to peace in Mindanao.

MILF chairman Al-Haj Murad Ebrahim said delay in finding closure to the peace negotiations decreased the optimism generated by the signing of the FAB between the MILF and Philippine government in October last year.

“For the people of Bangsamoro, every minute of delay in finishing the annexes to the FAB poses a threat to peace,” he said during the plenary session titled “Will Peace Hold in Mindanao?” at the 27th Asia Pacific Roundtable, here.

Other participants in the plenary session were Philippine presidential adviser on the Mindanao peace process, Secretary Teresita Quintos Deles and the Malaysian facilitator, Tengku Abdul Ghaffar Tengku Mohamed.

According to Murad, peace will also remain elusive if the Bangsamoro Basic Law, finds rejection in the Philippine Congress or is “mangled” purposely for the benefit of the vested interest groups in the republic.
The Bangsamoro Basic Law is the constitution of the envisioned Bangsamoro sub-state and which is now in the process of being drafted by the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC).

The MILF chairman said: “Peace, let alone permanent peace, will once again be an elusive commodity that will perhaps be very difficult to get hold of whether in our time or in the future.”

He reiterated that peace in Mindanao would only hold if the Bangsamoro people attained “a just peace” and resolved the Bangsamoro question pertaining to establishing a system of life and governance suitable and acceptable to the people.

Responding to the delay in concluding the negotiations on the annexes to the FAB as pointed out by Murad, Deles said Manila needed time to carefully study the matter and be sure it could implement any agreement that it signed with the MILF.

Philippines’ Aquino government, she said, wanted to avoid the problems suffered by the previous administration which was unable to carry out the stipulated agreement despite agreeing to it earlier.

The annexes, she said, involved several complex issues such as fiscal matter and ancestral domain.

MNLF leaders supportive

Meanwhile, Abdul Ghaffar remains optimistic that the final agreement between Manila and the MILF is “within sight” despite the long history of armed conflict between the two warring parties.

“I can see the light of peace in Mindanao and for the signing of a comprehensive agreement between the MILF and the Philippine government,” he said, adding that both sides had a team that was committed to achieving peace.

Later during the question-and-answer session, the MILF chairman was also asked about the reservation expressed by Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) leader, Nur Misuari on the FAB.

Murad brushed aside Misuari’s reservation on the FAB, saying that the majority of leaders in the MNLF were supportive of the agreement signed between the MILF and the Philippine government.

The present MNLF, he pointed out, was splintered into four groups with three of them in clear support of the FAB.

Nevertheless, he was confident that Misuari would accept the FAB that was struck by the MILF and Manila as it would create a better and feasible autonomous Mindanao compared to the agreement that was inked by MNLF and the previous Philippine administration.

Tag: Sabah, Mindanao, Moros, MNLF, MILF, Philippines