ILIGAN CITY—While the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are celebrating their agreement to end four decades of conflict in Mindanao and drawing global praises for it, another armed group on the island, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), is mourning and feeling betrayed.
“This is a violation of the 1996 final peace agreement between the Philippine government and the MNLF. It serves as the last nail on the coffin of the peace agreement,” Habib Hashim Mudjahab, head of the MNLF’s Islamic Command Council, said on Sunday.
The government and the MILF agreed in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Saturday on a “normalization” deal to deactivate the MILF insurgent forces and end the conflict in Mindanao.
The normalization annex is the last of four documents that make up the final peace agreement that both sides are looking to sign in February or March.
Malacañang said on Sunday that the deal was legal, as it complied with the Constitution.
“The government negotiators followed the President’s directive to make sure each provision is constitutional, reflects the lessons of previous peace processes and, most important, consistent with the political, cultural and economic capabilities of both parties,” Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma said on state-run radio.
The final peace agreement between the government and the MILF will be the basis of a Bangsamoro basic law that both sides will draft and submit to President Aquino, who, in turn, will certify it urgent when he submits it to Congress for approval.
Coloma said he hoped Congress would work fast on the basic law so that it could be submitted to a plebiscite by next year and the officials of the new Bangsamoro autonomous region be elected in 2016.
He also said he hoped the deal would lead to the silencing of guns in Mindanao.
Saturday’s deal should serve as a signal to all parties, including the MNLF, to get involved in the peace process, he said.
The MNLF opposes a separate peace deal with the MILF, although the government says the 1996 peace agreement with the MNLF will be incorporated into the Bangsamoro basic law.
To demonstrate its rejection of a separate peace, a faction of the MNLF led by Nur Misuari attacked Zamboanga City last September and took scores of hostages.
The government threw thousands of police and military troops into the fight, forcing the rebels to withdraw after 200 of them were killed in three weeks of fighting, which also destroyed coastal communities in Zamboanga, displacing thousands of people.
Authorities are hunting Misuari to make him face criminal charges that have been brought against him and his followers for the attack on Zamboanga.
The military is also watching out for “spoilers” who want to derail a peace deal between the government and the MILF.
Lt. Col. Ramon Zagala, chief of the military’s public affairs office, said on Sunday the Armed Forces welcomed the normalization deal and would stay vigilant, as there might be forces and threat groups who wanted to disrupt the peace process.
“Rest assured that our focused military operation will continue to ensure that the peace process is not hampered or disrupted by spoilers and other threats,” Zagala said.
Habib said his MNLF faction had 10,000 followers who saw the deal between the government and the MILF as a “blessing in disguise” because the abrogation of the 1996 peace agreement meant the group was back to the “clamor for independence through peaceful political means.”
He gave assurance that his group’s “armed component” would maintain a defensive stand, “unless provoked or attacked.”
He added that more MILF commanders were leaving to join the MNLF or the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, a group that broke away from the MILF three years ago and vowed on Saturday to continue fighting despite a peace deal between the government and the MILF.
Cotabato City Vice Mayor Muslimin Sema, head of another MNLF faction, the MNLF Committee of 15, said on Sunday that his group was cautious about making statements for fear of being branded as spoilers.
Sema said the MNLF, the government and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) were still reviewing the 1996 peace agreement.
On Saturday, Sema said the MNLF remained firm that all earlier agreements should be enforced first before it would allow the conclusion of a peace deal with another group.
The private group Initiative for International Dialogue on Sunday saluted the government and the MILF peace negotiators for clearing the last hurdle to a final peace agreement.
The “collective path” for the peoples of Mindanao has become “clearer and [the] burdens lighter” as the peace process moves to the next stage, the group said.
Patricia Sarenas, head of Mindanao Coalition of Development NGOs, said her group would continue to support the next steps toward the establishment of a Bangsamoro autonomous region.
In Manila, Senate President Franklin Drilon said the Senate looked forward to handling the basic law that would create the Bangsamoro region, vowing to give it “utmost priority.”
Senators Aquilino Pimentel III and Teofisto Guingona III, both from Mindanao, called Saturday’s deal an “achievement.”
Pimentel, however, said the proposed Bangsamoro law should capture the “essence” of the four annexes.
He said the Senate would scrutinize the bill for compliance with the Constitution.—With reports from TJ Burgonio and Marlon Ramos in Manila
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