MILF goes on massive info blitz

MANILA, Philippines—The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has organized groups to spearhead its own “massive information drive” to explain the government and MILF Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro.

On its official website, luwaran.com, Sheikh Mohammad Muntassir, head of the Da’wah Department of the MILF, said six groups will fan out to the Sulu-Tawi-Tawi-Basilan, Zamboanga Peninsula, Lanao, Davao, Maguindanao-Cotabato and South Cotabato areas.

Muntassir said members of the MILF Central Committee would head the groups and be their “lead discussants.”

The website also quoted Mohagher Iqbal, MILF chief peace negotiator, as saying that “understanding the agreement is not easy.”

Iqbal noted that the framework “contained provisions that are constructed ambiguously to give both parties elbow room or space for movement.”

British Ambassador Stephen Lillie, meanwhile, said during a recent visit to Cotabato City that the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) of MILF guerrillas could create a bottleneck in the events leading up to the final peace agreement but “it is one of the most important steps for peace.”

Lillie, whose government assisted in the peace negotiation, said “the tough task ahead would lie on the issue of disarmament.”

“This is a very sensitive issue that both sides should talk about and should come into an agreement,” he said, citing the case of Northern Ireland, where disarmament and reintegration also became a sticky issue before their own Good Friday Agreement with political parties in the conflict areas came into being.

“DDR can be realized slowly and decisively,” he said, adding that the Northern Ireland experience “can be duplicated here.”

The negotiating panels of the government and the MILF will resume negotiations this month in Kuala Lumpur. They are expected to discuss the details of the three annexes that the framework provides: Wealth-sharing, power-sharing and normalization.

Iqbal said he saw no problem should the head of the government panel, Marvic Leonen, be replaced.

Leonen recently accepted a nomination to the Supreme Court. Whether or not he will be included on the short list that the Judicial and Bar Council will send to Malacañang will be known after Nov. 7.

Iqbal said he had “good rapport” with Leonen but would not stop the former dean of the University of the Philippines College of Law from joining the high court.’

In fact, he said, “I see Leonen’s entry as a positive development.”

Earlier, Leonen said the wealth-sharing and power-sharing annexes were nearly complete as the technical working groups had been meeting on these annexes.

Much still needs to be done on the normalization, where according to the framework agreement, “the MILF shall undertake a graduated program for decommissioning its forces so that they are put beyond use.”

Leonen expressed confidence that all three annexes would be completed by the end of the year leading to a comprehensive peace pact. With a report from TJ Burgonio