Peace pact: 17 years in the making

FARMERS continue harvesting crops as fighting continues between soldiers and members of the breakaway Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters in Maguindanao province. JEOFFREY MAITEM/ INQUIRER MINDANAO

ILIGAN CITY—Seventeen years of negotiations between government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) came to a close in Kuala Lumpur last week as their respective peace panels finished the last of the four annexes to the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB).

MIRIAM Coronel-Ferrer, chief negotiator of the government, takes a break from a meeting with Inquirer editors and reporters for a photo shoot. ARNOLD ALMACEN

“The Annex on Normalization of the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro is already done,” the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) announced.

The parties also finished an Addendum on Bangsamoro Waters that they skipped during last month’s exploratory meeting that led to a consensus on power sharing.

Dignitaries from Congress streamed into the venue of the supposedly five-day exploratory meeting that began on Jan. 22. They included Sen. Teofisto Guingona III and Representatives Zajid Mangudadatu of Maguindanao province, Pangalian Balindong of Lanao del Sur province, Jesus Sacdalan of North Cotabato province, Jim Hataman-Salliman of Basilan province.

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III and Zamboanga City Rep. Lilia Nuño arrived earlier in the bustling Malaysian capital.

Inspiring greater hopes for the final breakthrough was the presence of presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda and Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Quintos-Deles.

Since July last year, the presence of Lacierda and Deles in the exploratory meetings indicated something positive was afoot in the negotiations.

Paving the way

The forging of the Addendum on Bangsamoro Waters and the Annex on Normalization to the FAB will pave the way for the formulation of a comprehensive agreement.

MOHAGHER Iqbal, chief negotiator of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, during a break in a meeting with Inquirer editors and reporters. ARNOLD ALMACEN

As chief negotiators Miriam Coronel-Ferrer and Mohagher Iqbal of the government and MILF, respectively, affix their signatures to the two documents, 17 years of negotiations for a political settlement of the Moro rebellion in Mindanao have come to pass.

The peace process between government and the MILF began on Jan. 7, 1997, with discussions on agenda-setting that took place at the rebel group’s Da’wah Center in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao. During that time, the MILF put forward a single agenda: “How to solve the Bangsamoro problem.”

The joint press release that signified the conduct of the initial meeting was signed by Assistant Secretary Jovenal Lazaga and Maj. Gen. Joselin Nazareno, for the government, and professor Moner Bajunaid and lawyer Lanang Ali for the MILF.

The conclusion of the negotiations came 15 months after the parties forged the landmark preliminary FAB on Oct. 15, 2012. The parties originally set the end of 2012 to complete the entire comprehensive agreement.

Presiding over the rites on Wednesday, Malaysian facilitator Tengku Dato’ Ab Ghafar Tengku Mohamed said the forging of the annexes on transitional modalities, wealth sharing, power sharing and normalization “is very, very painstaking … and very, very tough.”

Tengku added that “each of the annexes is an agreement by itself.”

“Each (of the annexes) is not a pushover. It has been discussed thoroughly, negotiated thoroughly,” he said, apparently to impress upon the journalists who were invited for the first time to witness the rites.

Real-life changes

The last meeting of the peace panels was the 43rd round of exploratory talks between the parties. It is the 24th under the Aquino administration.

“The many pages of the texts that we have initialed and will be initialing soon will have to come alive in the form of real-life changes,” Ferrer  said.

Below is a rundown of the highlights of the government-MILF peace process:

Jan. 7, 1997: Technical committees on agenda setting met in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao. The MILF listed its talking points and nine issues or concerns—ancestral domain, displaced and landless Bangsamoro, destruction of property and war victims, human rights issues, social and cultural discrimination, corruption of the mind and the moral fiber, economic inequities and widespread poverty, exploitation of natural resources and agrarian reform.

Jan. 27, 1997: Parties forge a ceasefire agreement covering Buldon, Maguindanao, which is in the vicinity of the MILF’s Camp Abubakar Assidique.

July 18, 1997: An accord on general cessation of hostilities was signed in Cagayan de Oro City. This was further developed in the years ahead.

March 21, 2000: Then  President Joseph Estrada declared an all-out war against the MILF in response to the MILF’s occupation of the town hall of Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte. The five-month military campaign concluded with the capture of Camp Abubakar.

March 24, 2001: Resumption of negotiations. With Estrada ousted, then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo reopened talks with the MILF, dubbing it her “all-out peace” policy.

June 22, 2001: Tripoli Agreement on Peace of 2001 was forged between government and the MILF. This laid down the framework of the character of the negotiations in pursuit of approaches to address the so-called Bangsamoro question. The framework provided for the parties to agree, through exploratory talks, on the issues of security, rehabilitation of war-torn areas and Bangsamoro ancestral domain. Consensus on the three issues would lead them to formal talks for the purpose of crafting a comprehensive agreement.

May 7, 2002: The parties adopted guidelines on the conduct of humanitarian, rehabilitation and development initiatives in conflict-torn areas of Mindanao. This led to the creation of the Bangsamoro Development Agency (BDA), the development arm of the MILF.

Sept. 8, 2004: The parties firmed up  terms of reference (TOR) for the International Monitoring Team (IMT) that would oversee implementation of the ceasefire accord. Malaysia led the IMT, in recognition of its role in facilitating the negotiations. The IMT further strengthened the ceasefire mechanism.

Dec. 21, 2004: The parties created the Ad Hoc Joint Action Group (AHJAG). It was an avenue for cooperation against lawless elements and terrorist activities in rebel strongholds.

April 2005: The peace panels started discussions on the most difficult issue of the negotiations: ancestral domain. This culminated in the landmark but controversial memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain (MOA-AD) that was initialed by the parties on July 27, 2008. Ready to be signed by the peace panel chairs on Aug. 5, 2008, the Supreme Court restrained the government from doing so.

Aug. 18, 2008: War broke out in Lanao del Norte, North Cotabato and Sarangani, in response to the aborted signing of the MOA-AD. As a result, government disbanded its peace panel, and war raged for about a year. By October 2008, the high court ruled that the MOA-AD was unconstitutional.

July 29, 2009: Talks resumed in Kuala Lumpur. Earlier, government declared suspension of offensive military operations (SOMO), followed by the MILF’s suspension of military actions (SOMA).

Sept. 15, 2009: The parties created the International Contact Group (ICG) composed of four state and four nonstate entities to continue with the peace process and honor the commitments each made in the negotiating table. From hereon until the onset of the Aquino administration, not much of substantive consensus building ensued. During the period, the parties expanded the role of the IMT by creating more components—one on civilian protection and another on humanitarian, rehabilitation and development.

June 3, 2010: The parties executed a Declaration of Continuity for Peace Negotiations, embodying their commitment to honor the consensus between the peace panels even if the negotiations proceed under a different administration.

Aug. 4, 2011: President Aquino met MILF chief Murad Ebrahim in Tokyo. This meeting resembled the 1986 Sulu meeting between his mother, the late President Corazon Aquino, and Moro National Liberation Front founding chair Nur Misuari. The Tokyo meeting heightened the trust and confidence of the parties.

Aug. 22, 2011: The government peace panel offered  the MILF its so-called “3-for-1 formula” for Moro autonomy. The MILF, which has earlier asked for a substate arrangement, roundly rejected the proposal, leading to a near impasse in the negotiations.

April 24, 2012: The parties forged the “10 Decision Points of Principles,” which was the first-ever document signed between them since negotiations resumed under the Aquino administration. The document laid the basis for the succeeding consensus, isolating their agreements in principle from their disagreements on details. By this time, the parties apparently decided to break down the consensus-building exercise into several components, beginning with a framework agreement.

Oct. 15, 2012: The FAB was signed by then government chief negotiator Marvic Leonen (now Supreme Court associate justice) and MILF chief negotiator  Iqbal in Malacañang. President Aquino, MILF chief Murad, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, and OIC Secretary General Dr. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu graced the historic occasion. For the affair, hundreds of MILF commanders set foot on the Palace for the first time.

The FAB provides the “overarching architecture” for the process of addressing the so-called Bangsamoro question, defining the powers and structures of a new self-governing entity that will replace and have far greater political and economic powers than the current Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). It also lays down the principles, processes and mechanisms “that will shape the new relations between the central government and the Bangsamoro.”

The FAB also enshrines the MILF’s agreeing to “undertake a graduated program for decommissioning of its forces so that they are put beyond use.” In turn, the government agrees to “a phased and gradual” transfer of law enforcement functions from the Armed Forces of the Philippines to a Bangsamoro police force in the Bangsamoro territory.

Feb. 27, 2013: The FAB Annex on Transitional Arrangements and Modalities was forged.

July 13, 2013: The FAB Annex on Revenue Generation and Wealth Sharing was forged. The presence of Deles and Lacierda was key in the breakthrough. Throughout the nine-day negotiations, the MILF central committee convened in parallel meetings so that it can provide real-time answers to the questions that need to be decided upon by its peace panel in Kuala Lumpur.

Aug. 21, 2013: For the first time in the history of the negotiations, observers from civil society organizations were allowed in the exploratory meeting.

Dec. 8, 2013: The FAB Annex on Power Sharing was forged. Lacierda and Deles were also around.