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- EDD K. USMAN | Twitter: @edd1819 | Instagram: @bluestar0910 | Facebook: SDN — SciTech and Digital News
(SDN) — For many decades combined, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) fought for the independence of Mindanao from Luzon and the Visayas.
Much cited figures of deaths — soldiers, Moro rebels, and civilians and other non-combatants — were placed at over 120,000 people. Figures could be more.
But that was then, this is now.
And the “now” is that former President Rodolfo Roa Duterte, now feuding with his successor, President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos, Jr., wants Mindanao and Palawan to secede from the rest of the Philippines as an independent and sovereign nation.
Per the Inquirer.net, the former President in press conference in Davao City, his hometown, hit Marcos for allegedly initiating lawmakers’ fresh moves to amend the 1987 Constitution through a People’s Initiative (PI).
So, Duterte said that local political forces would get their acts together and regroup aimed at starting a movement to achieve the objective of a “separate and independent Mindanao. But unlike the MNLF and MILF rebellion that started in the early 1970s, the movement would not involve the shedding of blood. Rather it would be based on processes the United Nations had established.
In a press conference he called on Tuesday evening, Duterte said the breakaway “won’t be a bloody one” but would follow the processes established by the United Nations.
The former President, the architect of the establishment of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), revealed that his staunch ally, Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez, former House of Representatives speaker, would lead the secessionist movement.
Would the MNLF and the MILF unsheath and raise their swords again?
Obviously, for both former revolutionary groups, the answer is a “no”.
In a statement reported by the Bangsamoro Information Office (BIO) in Cotabato City, Maguindanao del Norte, BARMM, MILF Chairman and and Bangsamoro Chief Minister Ahod Balawag “Al-Haj Murad” Ebrahim was quoted as saying about his “unwavering commitment” on making sure the continuous implementation of the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB).
The CAB was a result of the 17 years peace negotiations between the Government of the Philippines and the MILF founded by Al-Azhar University alumnus Ustadhz Salamat Hashim.
Ebrahim made the statement without mentioning Duterte’s call for Mindanao independence.
“As the Chief Minister of the Bangsamoro Government, I stand firmly on adhering to the faithful implementation of the provisions of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) towards the right to self-determination,” he emphasized.
The MNLF, on the other hand, signed with GPH the 1976 Tripoli Agreement, the 1986 Jeddah Accord, and the 1996 Final Peace Agreement (FPA).
SDN – SciTech and Digital News was not able to determine as of press time the sentiments of MNLF Founding Chairman Nur P. Misuari on Duterte’s call for Mindanao secession.
Ebrahim, once the MILF’s chief negotiator and successor of Hashim after his death on July 13, 2003, was appointed Chief Minister by Duterte in 2019 and re-appointed to the same position by Marcos for a second three-year term.
The Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) governs the BARMM government which is being run by the MILF according to the CAB and made possible by the 2018 Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL).
Ebrahim stressed the significance of the CAB, which he pointed out, recognizes the just and legitimate cause of the Bangsamoro people and their aspiration to chart a political future through a democratic process, thus preserving Bangsamoro’s identity and posterity and enabling meaningful self-governance, as the BIO reported. The BIO is under the Office of the Chief Minister (OCM), its media and information arm headed by Director Andrew Alonto.
Both MNLF, MILF not going back to call for Mindanao independence
Duterte aired his press conference on Tuesday, which the BIO said triggered concerns and inquiries from the BARMM constituents on the Chief Minister’s reaction. But not to be concerned, he said key actors in the Bangsamoro peace process are steadfast in their stand on supporting the peace process.
“Although more has yet to be done, the Parties to the CAB have made great strides in the implementation of its components that are ultimately beneficial to the Bangsamoro people,” Ebrahim assured.
In a related development, lawyer Omar Yasser C. Sema, deputy speaker of the Bangsamoro Parliament, reminded everyone of the MNLF’s long-standing shift from secession to autonomy. He said the erstwhile MNLF revolutionaries already left behind their rebellion.
Sema, an MNLF member and son of BARMM Labor Minister Muslimin G. Sema, chairman of another MNLF group, made his views known through an interview conducted by ANC Digital.
“I think from the context of the Bangsamoro, the BARMM, we should look now at how the leadership of the BARMM, the MILF, the MNLF, how would they look into it. And we would clearly see both have abandoned their call for secession. And, in fact, the MILF have downgraded their call for the establishment of an Islamic State to a meaningful and genuine autonomy,” the young Sema asserted.
“Apparently, wee can see that both fronts are doing well in the transition process, and the situation does not allow us, or there’s no basis for us to go back to the call for secession.”
He recalled that the MNLF since the 1976 Tripoli Agreement discarded seccession and later affirmed by the 1996 FPA.
On the part of the MILF, he said they have the CAB.
Recall that the CAB called for a stronger autonomy than what the MNLF enjoyed with the defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao or ARMM led then by Misuari, Isnaji Alvarez for a brief period, and Dr. Parouk S. Hussin, all MNLF stalwarts.
The young Sema said the BARMM transition is almost complete in laying down the foundations of the Bangsamoro government and preparations for the 2025 regional elections.
The Bangsamoro region, established in 2018 by the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) to implement the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), is made up of the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi, the cities of Cotabato, Lamitan, and Marawi, as well as the Special Geographic Area’s (SGA) 63 barangays or villages that voted “Yes” in a plebiscite in February 2019 to be under the BARMM jurisdiction.
According to the Philippine Atlas BARMM has 4,404,288 people. It has 116 municipalities: Basilan, 11 municipalities; Lanao del Sur, 39; undivided Maguindanao, 36; Sulu, 19; and Tawi-Tawi, 11. Its component cities are Cotabato (the regional center and capital) in Maguindanao; Lamitan in Basilan; and Marawi in Lanao del Sur. — with report from BIO/Johamin Inok (✓)
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Update, February 3, 6:50 p.m.: It should be MILF, not MNLF, which downgraded its call for an Islamic State to a meaningful and genuine autonomy. In the earlier version, it was wrongfully attributed to the MNLF.