B’laan member of MILF peace panel dies

DAVAO CITY—The separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on Tuesday announced the death from natural causes of a senior member of its peace panel.

Antonio Kinoc, a B’laan tribal leader from Matanao, Davao del Sur, died on May 3 at the age of 66 in Sarangani province from an illness that the MILF did not specify.

Kinoc was known as DK, for Datu Kinoc, to the members of the MILF peace panel,

In a news statement, the rebel group said the information about Kinoc’s death was relayed by his daughter, Anne Queen, to officials of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC). Kinoc had served as a legal consultant to Timuay Melanio Ulama, a BTC commissioner who was a member of an indigenous people’s group like himself.

Kinoc helped in the drafting of the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) and was regarded by the MILF as “undoubtedly a man of peace and a true friend, an ally of the Moro people.”

Kinoc, who represented the indigenous people in the peace talks, also worked with the main Muslim insurgency, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), when it negotiated peace with the government. When the 1996 peace pact was signed with the MNLF, he became a member of the Regional Legislative Assembly of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) under Nur Misuari.

Kinoc’s death is “a big loss to the peace process and especially to the indigenous peoples, whom he had valiantly fought for not only in words but with persistent, consistent and dedicated acts of service,” wrote Mary Ann Arnado of the Mindanao People’s Caucus wrote on her Facebook page.

Arnado recalled how Kinoc would proudly say he had not skipped any hearings on the BBL.

During the hearings, she said Kinoc would always say that he was a living witness to the MILF’s respect and recognition of the culture and faith of the indigenous people.–Allan Nawal