Include MNLF in hearings–OIC

MANILA, Philippines–On the advice of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the Senate committee on local government will invite the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), the main Muslim insurgency, to its hearings on the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), according to committee chair Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Marcos was one of the senators who met with OIC Secretary General Iyad Ameen Madani when the latter visited the Senate on Monday and expressed support for the BBL, a major component of the peace agreement that the government signed last year with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which broke away from the MNLF in 1977.

According to Marcos, the OIC officials advised that the peace process be all-inclusive, meaning other stakeholders should be consulted.

“They specifically mentioned the MNLF, and that the MNLF should be included or at least consulted,” Marcos told reporters in a phone patch interview.

MNLF founder Nur Misuari, however, has been reluctant to attend the Senate hearings despite assurances of security. Misuari is considered a fugitive because he is facing charges for the siege of Zamboanga City in 2013.

The senator plans to invite instead the heads of other MNLF factions, particularly those associated with Abul Khayr Alonto and Muslimin Sema.

As for the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), a breakaway group from the MILF, it has rejected the peace process and wants the Muslims of Mindanao to secede from the country, he noted.

Marcos said the OIC’s concern was that the draft BBL must be considered in the context of the government’s earlier agreements with the MNLF which signed a peace agreement in 1996. It wants to know what would happen to earlier peace agreements if the new Bangsamoro region is established.

“The BBL has to be taken in the context of other peace agreements and those other peace agreements were signed with the MNLF,” he said.

Marcos said he does not think the hearings with the MNLF would unduly delay the passage of the BBL.