MILF shuns ARMM peace model

SULTAN KUDARAT, Maguindanao - The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is open to discussions on federalism but outrightly rejects the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) as the answer to the three-decade-old Moro rebellion.

The MILF said “the size of territory” for them to govern is “not even a major issue” that it considers. “If federalism is proposed, then we would look into its content just as we welcome other proposals.”

MILF vice chairman for political affairs Ghaazali Jaafar also said that even the label of the kind of government they will run is not important to them. “It can be called a stone or slipper government,” he quipped.

The important thing for them, he said, is the “essence. We are open to any kind of proposal as long as it is not contrary to Islam.”

But on the ARMM as solution, Jaafar said, “Outrightly, we say no. That is not acceptable to us.” But he quickly added, “We could start with the ARMM.”

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu, on the other hand, said the area that they would claim would be “far different” from the ones of the Moro National Liberation Front.

“To us, the reality is that majority of the islands in Mindanao are ancestral domains of the Bangsamoro. We accept the fact that we are already a minority now. Therefore, in the political settlement, we can confine the coverage of the proposed area where we could exercise our own governance—in the area where we are in the majority,” said Kabalu.

Jaafar said that the kind of settlement the MILF wants is “very simple. In concrete terms, that would mean land, freedom, work, food on the table and respect for human rights.”

He believes they could only have these once “independence has already been granted according to the perspective of the Bangsamoro people.”

Whatever the negotiating panels approve must be submitted to the Bangsamoro people in a referendum for their approval; hence, he stressed the MILF wants to ensure that the agreement it will ink with government “must be acceptable and genuinely offers a lasting solution to our problems.”

Kabalu said the final peace agreement forged by government and the MNLF has “not been implemented fully because it is simply impossible to implement.”

He said this is why the MILF is pushing for implementation of the minor agreements, like the truce—in order “to make sure that we have agreed on items that are implementable.”

Some MILF leaders expressed dismay, meanwhile, over government’s decision not to establish an International Monitoring Team (IMT) office in Zamboanga City, one of the five sites earlier targeted as headquarters for the foreign truce team.

Jun Mantawil, chairman of the rebel peace panel secretariat, warned the development “would set a bad precedent in that a local executive can block an agreement entered into by the government, especially in the name of peace.”Zamboanga City was chosen as one of the mobile offices of the IMT during the fifth round of exploratory talks in Kuala Lumpur on February 19 and 20.

Mantawil raised the MILF point of dismay following Thursday’s meeting of Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Quintos-Deles with Mayor Celso Lobregat in Zamboanga City.

Deles reportedly told Lobregat the IMT office in Zamboanga would not be established there “out of respect for the sentiments of residents.”

Lobregat has been leading a strong opposition to the setting up of the IMT headquarters in Zamboanga City because it is not within the areas of conflict and also not part of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Lobregat also cited the local gun ban ordinance in opposing the setting up of the IMT office in his city, which will have to be secured by joint elements of the Armed Forces and the MILF.

Deles said the IMT office supposedly to be established in Zamboanga City will be set up in another location within the Zamboanga peninsula.

She added that IMT offices in the cities of Davao, Cotabato, General Santos and Iligan have already been set up.

Deles said the stalled peace talks will resume after Ramadan, Islam’s holy month of fasting. With R. Sarmiento