Constitution Not Cure-all for Mindanao Strife, Says MILF Leader
“Not all solutions to
the ongoing conflict in Mindanao can be found in the Constitution.” This
was the observation made by MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu in a phone interview
with Bulatlat.
BY ALEXANDER MARTIN
REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
“Not all solutions to
the ongoing conflict in Mindanao can be found in the Constitution.”
This was the
observation made by MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu in a phone interview with
Bulatlat over the weekend. Kabalu, who is also a lawyer, was reacting
to a recent statement by Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye that the Arroyo
government was willing to grant the MILF’s demands on the ancestral domain
claim, but within the framework of the Constitution.
The ancestral domain
claim issue has emerged of late as the most contentious subject in the
GRP-MILF peace negotiations, which are being brokered by the Malaysian
government.
During a bilateral
meeting preceding the China-ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations)
commemorative summit in Nanning, China last week, President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo asked Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi to tell
the MILF that she was willing to grant the group’s demands.
“The president
mentioned the current status (of the peace talks and how) we have stalled
on some territorial issue, again… The president mentioned that we are
willing to provide, we are willing to grant this,” Bunye told reporters in
Nanning.
“But this should be
done within the framework of the Constitution,” Bunye added. “The
President hoped that this would be properly conveyed to the other side.”
Ancestral domain
The MILF is proposing
a Bangsamoro Juridical Entity based on an ancestral domain claim over
Mindanao, Sulu, and Palawan. “These are areas which historically belonged
to our ancestors,” Kabalu told Bulatlat.
Kabalu, however,
recognized that there are now many non-Muslim settlers in these areas.
“They will be given
the option of either joining the Islamized community or remaining with
their original groups,” the MILF spokesman said when asked what would
become of the non-Muslim settlers in these areas should the ancestral
domain demands be granted. “We will not impose on them.”
The government had
insisted that areas to be included to the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity in
addition to the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) should be
subject to “constitutional processes.”
The ARMM – which
includes Sulu, Basilan, Tawi-Tawi, and Maguindanao – is a product of the
1996 Final Peace Agreement between the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF)
and the Ramos government, which sought to end the MNLF’s 27-year armed
struggle for a separate state.
Impasse
MILF leaders say the
issue of “constitutionality” had not emerged in any of the signed
documents related to the peace talks since 1997. It had only surfaced when
the MILF put forward its ancestral domain claim, the group’s leaders say.
The ancestral domain
issue had caused the GRP-MILF peace talks to hit a snag last September.
Amid the impasse, two
bombings took place in Mindanao on Oct. 10. The first took place at early
afternoon in Tacurong City, Sultan Kudarat, wounding four women. The
second happened eight hours later in Makilala, North Cotabato, killing six
people and wounding 29 others.
Named by the
Philippine National Police (PNP) as suspects in the Makilala bombing were:
MILF chairman Al Haj
Murad; Kule Mamagong alias Ustadz Kule, Daud Sarip, Biznar Salahuddin,
Atti Lintungan alias Ustadz Atti, Samsudin Demaalo alias Commander Platon
Blah, Ahmad Akmad Batabol Usman alias Abdulbasit or Basit Usman, Zahide
Abdul alias Zabiri Abdul or Bedz, Usman Al Majad – all alleged MILF
commanders;
Dulmatin alias Amat
Usman and Omar Patek alias Abdul Sheik, alleged members of the
Indonesian-based terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah; and Hadji Akmad Bayam,
allegedly a former MNLF commander now working for Executive Secretary
Eduardo Ermita as an assistant secretary.
Kabalu had warned of
a “total breakdown” in the peace talks if the PNP should pursue charges
against Murad.
Ermita has said he
did not know that Murad was included in the charge sheet. He berated local
authorities for not clearing the issue with “higher authorities,”
considering, he said, that there are peace talks going on between the GRP
and the MILF. “I have to look into this... because it infringes on the
higher activity which is the negotiation going on with the MILF,” the
executive secretary said last week.
In his interview with
Bulatlat, Kabalu cited Ermita as having spoken of the possibility
of having Murad’s name withdrawn from the charge sheet.
Government
proposal
Government
negotiators had asked for a Sept. 30 deadline for coming up with a
counter-proposal to the MILF’s demand, but failed to meet it.
The GRP panel
subsequently asked for an Oct. 31 deadline for the counter-proposal, but
once more failed to meet it.
“They have asked for
a Nov. 15 deadline for their counter-proposal,” Kabalu said of the
government negotiators.
“We are awaiting
their counter-proposal,” Kabalu added. “Whether or not the peace talks
will move forward from the impasse depends on that.”
Roots of the Moro
war
During the presidency
of Diosdado Macapagal (1961-1965), Sabah, an island near Mindanao to which
the Philippines has a historic claim, ended up in the hands of the
Malaysian government. His successor Ferdinand Marcos later conceived a
scheme which involved the recruitment of between 28 and 64 Moro fighters
to occupy Sabah.
The reported summary
execution of these recruits in 1968 by their superiors, which Moro
historian Salah Jubair says was due to their refusal to follow orders, led
to widespread outrage among Moros and led to the formation of the MNLF
that same year.
The MNLF, which
fought for an independent state in Muslim Mindanao, entered into a series
of negotiations with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP),
beginning in the 1970s under the Marcos government. Conflicts on the issue
of autonomy led to a breakdown of talks between the GRP and the MNLF in
1978, prompting a group led by Dr. Salamat Hashim to break away from the
MNLF and form the MILF. Since then, the MILF has been fighting for an
Islamic state in Mindanao.
In 1996, the MNLF
signed a Final Peace Agreement with the GRP which created the ARMM as a
concession to the group. That same year, the MILF began peace negotiations
with the GRP. Bulatlat
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