MNLF groups ventilate different positions on BBL before Congress

COTABATO
CITY -- The largest faction in the Moro National Liberation
Front (MNLF) said Thursday it is thankful to Congress for giving chance
to ventilate its views on the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) and
reiterated its appeal to lawmakers to make sure the bill would benefit
the tri-people” in the country’s south.By
tri-people,” the MNLF group under former Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin
Sema meant Southern Mindanao’s Muslim, Christian and non-Muslim
indigenous hinterland communities, which has been existing even before
the pioneering groups of foreign Islamic missionaries set foot, between
the 13thand 14thcentury, in what are now provinces of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao to spread Islam.Sema,
who is of pure Maguindanaon descent, and ethnic Maranaw Abul Khayr
Alonto, also a leader of another MNLF faction, ventilated last Tuesday
in the House of Representatives their views on the draft BBL, which is a
product of the final peace compact between the government and the Moro
Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).Alonto
and Sema had both said, before officials of the 75-member special House
committee deliberating on the draft BBL, that contrary to public
perceptions, their respective groups are not against President Benigno
Aquino III’s peace overture with the MILF, which splintered from the
MNLF in the early 1980s. We
are thankful to the House of Representatives for giving us chance to
speak about our sentiments on the draft BBL. We can only hope and pray
that our inputs during that congressional hearing on the draft BBL will
not be taken lightly by lawmakers now working on the enactment into law
of that bill, Sema said on Thursday.The
draft BBL, which aims to replace the ARMM with a new, MILF-led
Bangsamoro political entity, is expected to be passed into law within
the first quarter of 2015.Sema
was yet secretary-general of the MNLF when the group signed a final
peace compact with government on September 2, 1996, during the time of
President Fidel Ramos. The government-MILF talks took off January 7,
1997, barely three months after the MNLF and the Ramos administration
signed the vaunted truce in Jakarta, Indonesia.In his statement emailed Thursday, Sema said he had insinuated to lawmakers, during the 35thdraft
BBL hearing in Congress, that the government’s having crafted with the
MILF the October 15, 2013 Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro and,
subsequently, the March 27, 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro,
had caused discomfort” in their ranks. Even
then, we’re not turning our backs from our September 2, 1996 peace
agreement with government. We are not at war with the MILF either. We
can never be at war with the MILF. We are for a peace process that would
benefit Mindanao’s `tri-people.' Not a single Mindanao sector must be
left out,” Sema pointed out.Alonto,
whose group emerged only after MNLF founder Nur Misuari had gone into
hiding after his men staged a deadly mutiny in Zamboanga City in
September 2013, was so explicit in his recognition of the final
government-MILF peace deal and in his endorsement of the draft BBL.The
group of Alonto, who, as a young MNLF leader, availed of an amnesty
program during the time of President Ferdinand Marcos, is comprised of
now aged former guerilla leaders, many of them beneficiaries of
socio-economic and political packages from the Marcos regime, as
interventions designed to quell the Mindanao Moro secessionist uprising.The
MNLF faction under Misuari, on the other hand, is totally against the
on-going government-MILF peace overture. Misuari and his followers even
declared independence” of the so-called Mindanao-Sulu-Palawan
(Minsupala) region in 2013 in protest of Malacañang’s dealings with the
MILF.The
government-MNLF peace accord covers all Moro communities in the
Minsupala area, referred to in the same agreement as special zone of
peace and development. Our
group is very different and so realistic. It is only struggling hard
for the Moro people to have genuine autonomy and enjoy the right to
thrive under the right-to-self determination doctrine. Our group is also
aiming to preserve and nurture the gains and dividends of the September
2, 1996 peace accord,” Sema said.Alonto
was quoted on Tuesday by different local radio outfits as saying that
the MNLF faction under him is for the full implementation of all
agreements reached by the government and MILF.Sema
and Alonto had both said they are grateful to the House committee
handling the draft BBL, led by Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez,
for inviting them to the 35thcongressional hearing on the bill.Sema
said his group will continue adhering religiously to the now 18-year
final government-MNLF peace agreement. He said they are just as willing
to work with government iron out misunderstandings on the implementation
of its sensitive provisions. By
our combined efforts and shared visions, we can generate a successful
solution and a conclusion to the problem in southern Philippines that we
all want to achieve, which is a just and lasting peace that we can
leave as legacy to the future generations of Bangsamoro and Filipinos,”
Sema had said in his message during the congressional hearing.