ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines, 3 January 2008 — The leader of the Philippines’ largest Muslim separatist armed group yesterday appealed for patience among his followers even as he expressed disappointment over Manila’s offer for a federal state for the Moro people.
Formal peace talks were stalled again last month after the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rejected a new government offer on the scope of an expanded autonomous region.
In a bid to restart the talks, government negotiators floated the idea of creating a federal state for Muslims in the southern Philippines.
MILF leaders also shot that down before it could even take off, warning that it could be an other ruse. Nonetheless, they urged their members not to lose hope.
“The road to freedom is always full of twists and turns and to overcome, we must work, persist, and sacrifice,” MILF Chairman Murad Ebrahim said in the group’s website Luwaran.com.
Last month, chief MILF negotiator Mohagher Iqbal urged the government to come up with an acceptable offer, warning that their fighters were getting impatient.
Other MILF leaders also warned that the failure of the present leadership could result in “extremists” winning over their members.
The MILF is fighting for a separate Muslim homeland in the south. In 2001, it signed a cease-fire pact with government troops, which has continued to hold despite sporadic violations from both sides.
The MILF wants the ancestral domain to cover the existing Muslim autonomous region and other areas in the provinces of Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani and Palawan where there are large communities of Muslims and indigenous tribes.
Iqbal said all that is needed to restart the talks is for the government to return to its earlier commitment.
“The government peace panel must honor its commitment to the Bangsamoro people because we want peace to reign and end the violence in Mindanao,” he said. “We will wait for the government to reconsider its decision.”
He said government negotiators headed by Rodolfo Garcia completely disregarded the initial agreement on the ancestral domain and insisted again that the granting of homeland to Muslims in Mindanao would solely be through the constitutional process, which the rebel group previously opposed.
The Philippine Constitution prohibits the dismembering of the country.
Presidential peace adviser Jesus Dureza said there is a proposal to amend the constitution and introduce a federal system of government.
“This is one of the proposals the government is looking at to get the peace talks moving again,” Dureza said, adding, that the only purpose of changing the constitution is to install a Bangsamoro state or a Bangsamoro region in Mindanao.
But even that is contentious because Arroyo’s political foes are wary that she might only use the MILF case as an excuse to change the system of government from presidential to parliamentary.
