Solon: Inviting Misuari to Bangsamoro hearings ‘an insult to people of Zamboanga’
Rep. Celso Lobregat of Zamboanga City. congress.gov.ph
MANILA, Philippines—A representative of the conflict-stricken Zamboanga City pleaded not to invite Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) chairman Nur Misuari for the panel’s hearings over the recently submitted Bangsamoro bill, which seeks to implement the government’s peace deal with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
Zamboanga City District 1 Representative Celso Lobregat said inviting the MNLF leader will send a “wrong message” to his constituents, who were caught in a failed siege led by the MNLF upon Misuari’s orders in September 2013. The siege resulted in the death of 200 people, mostly from rebels.
“The MNLF should be represented by someone with no warrant. This will send a very, very wrong signal. I beg, please invite the MNLF, but not Nur Misuari,” Lobregat said during the committee’s organizational meeting on Tuesday.
Panel chairman Cagayan De Oro Representative Rufus Rodriguez said he wants Misuari to attend so that the MNLF founding chairman could give his position on the Bangsamoro bill, which the MNLF has opposed.
“Why are we rushing to invite a terrorist group? We have suffered. It’s an insult to the people of Zamboanga. I don’t want to be a part of these charades,” Lobregat said.
The panel eventually decided to defer its decision whether or not to invite the MNLF leader.
Rodriguez first floated the idea of inviting Misuari and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) leader Ameril Umbra Kato so that the sides of all Bangsamoro constituents, including secessionists, are heard.
The MILF broke off from the MNLF due to shifting allegiances in leadership. Meanwhile, the BIFF split from the MILF in 2008 because the separatist group opposed the peace pact the MILF was arranging with the government.
The MNLF launched a failed siege in Zamboanga city in September 2013 in an independence bid, claiming that its 1996 peace pact with government was sidelined by the latest peace agreement with its Moro counterpart.
The recently submitted Bangsamoro bill seeks to implement the peace pact signed between the government and the MILF, ending its decades of Muslim secessionist movement in the region.
Misuari, who is in hiding, faces charges of rebellion and violation of international humanitarian law of the Philippines, genocide and other crimes against humanity over the Zamboanga siege.
Meanwhile, Umbra Kato faces charges of murder and arson in connection with the 2008 attacks against military and civilian targets in Central Mindanao.
The Bangsamoro bill is targeted to hurdle the committee level by end of November, and to be approved on third reading in the lower chamber by December 17.
Meanwhile, the plebiscite, which aims to ratify the bill for the creation of a Bangsamoro political entity to replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, is targeted on March 2015. Rodriguez said the law will also call for a P700 million budget to fund the plebiscite.
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