JEDDAH, 11 November 2007 — To strengthen its support for the peace process in the southern Philippines, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) yesterday expanded the membership of its committee on Mindanao and also gave it a new name.
At the opening of a three-day tripartite meeting with the Philippine government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), the Committee of Eight added three new members and changed its name to the Peace Committee for Southern Philippines (PCSP).
A statement is expected at the end of the meeting, which the 57-nation strong OIC initiated to discuss the implementation of the 1996 peace accord between the Philippine government (GRP) and the MNLF.
The new members are Turkey, Egypt and Pakistan. They join Bangladesh, Brunei, Indonesia, Libya, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal and Somalia.
The committee agreed to renew Indonesia’s chairmanship.
OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu chaired the opening session, which took place in the afternoon at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Jeddah, and urged in his speech for all parties concerned to bring about peace to the southern Philippine region.
“Today we are launching a process with a road map that will certainly lead us to the right destination, which is peace and prosperity to Mindanao and the rest of the Republic of the Philippines. This process requires confidence-building measures,” Ihsanoglu said.
He said peace will not become a reality unless the process is accompanied by economic and infrastructure development, reconstruction, correction of injustice, and the proper settlement of the displaced population.
In a speech delivered by his representative, MNLF Chairman Nur Misuari, who is in jail in Manila while on trial over rebellion charges, gave a backgrounder on the Bangsamoro (Moro people) struggle and called upon the OIC and members states “to search their conscience” and support Muslims in the Philippines.
He warned of the consequences of the failure of the meeting, citing that MNLF fighters and their supporters were losing hope in the peace process.
He also thanked Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for facilitating the meeting.
On the Philippine government’s side, delegation leader Nabil Tan, an undersecretary at the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, expressed the government’s desire to make the peace process a success.
“We come to this meeting with high hopes and confident desire that we would reach a consensus,” he said.
“We are not here to argue on perceived challenges and accomplishments. We are here to reach an agreement. We are here to affirm our commitment to put a just conclusion to the peace process with the MNLF,” he added.
Sovereign Guarantee
OIC officials lamented that Misuari was unable to come despite a Philippine court ruling that permitted him to attend the meeting.
“The Philippine government asked for guarantees from Saudi Arabia that Misuari will be returned and not be allowed to stay longer than the allowed period, not participate in political activities while here and not seek asylum, which the Saudi government did provide. However, the court asked for a sovereign guarantee from Saudi Arabia, and negotiations continued over that until the last two days but we ran out of time,” said Ambassador Qasim El-Masri, OIC Special Envoy for Peace in the Southern Philippines, to reporters after the committee’s meeting.
Misuari appointed Randolph Parcasio, the MNLF’s legal representative, as head of the group’s delegation, which includes all the factions that previously broke away from his group.
Ambassador Atta Al-Manan Bakhit, OIC assistant secretary for humanitarian affairs, gave reporters a brief overview of the history and the problem for Muslims in the southern Philippines especially with regard to the economic underdevelopment, despite the rich natural resources of that region, and the deplorable humanitarian conditions.
After years of armed struggle for independence, which was estimated to have resulted in more than 115,000 deaths and displacement of hundreds of thousands of mostly Muslim people in Mindanao, the government and the MNLF signed a peace accord in 1996.
Two PhasesPhase I of the agreement, which covers a three-year period after the signing of the accord on Sept. 2, 1996, provided for the integration of former MNLF fighters into the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP), and formation of the Special Zone of Peace and Development (SZOPAD), the Southern Philippine Council for Peace and Development (SPCPD), and the Consultative Assembly.
Phase II provides for an amendment to or repeal through congressional action of the Organic Act (RA 6734) or the law creating the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), subject to a plebiscite by the people in areas covered to determine the establishment of a new autonomous government and the specific area of autonomy.
The government maintains that it has implemented Phase I and is now discussing implementation of Phase II.
The MNLF complains that the government has refused to honor the agreement in its entirety. “The agreement has reached a point where it needs a general review. Peace is necessary because the problems facing Muslims there are increasing and there is a need to commit to the agreements,” said Ambassador Bakhit.
El-Masri noted that agreement was never ratified by the Philippine Congress.
“We will look into the implementation of the agreement in its entirety, identify the obstacles to implementing it and find ways to overcome these obstacles,” he said regarding the purpose of the three-day tripartite meeting, which was postponed many times, and will be followed by other tripartite meetings.
A major obstacle cited by both sides was the coverage of an autonomous region.
Misuari’s group wants the coverage to include the current ARMM (Marawi City and the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sharif Kabunsuan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi) plus the entire western and southern half of Mindanao Island and the southwestern province of Palawan, all of which are claimed by the MNLF to be traditional Muslim areas.
The government insists that the inclusion of these areas, whose population are predominantly non-Muslims, should be subject to a plebiscite.
The same thorny issue has been cited as the cause of the stalemate in peace talks being held separately between Manila and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).The MILF, which broke away from the MNLF in 1978, refused to accept the GRP-MNLF peace pact and opted for separate negotiations, with Malaysia as broker.
