TAGUM CITY—The Moro National Liberation Front–Executive Council of 15 (MNLF-EC15) said that the peace agreement signed today between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (GRP-MILF) is “problematic” and accused the Malacanang of abrogating the 1996 First Peace Agreement (FPA) with the MNLF,
“The peace pact is seriously problematic and will likely make the problem more complicated,” said Romeo Sema, executive director of the MNLF-EC15 General Secretariat.
The MNLF EC-15 is a breakaway faction of the MNLF loyal to Nur Misuari, who founded the MNLF in 1969. This group is led by former Central Committee member, Muslimin Sema, who became mayor of Cotabato City.
“We all know that there is an existing peace agreement which is the “MNLF-OIC-GPH 1996 Final Peace Agreement for the establishment of genuine political autonomous government”. The problem is this agreement is still not yet implemented then GRP signed another agreement,” Sema told DavaoToday in a phone interview.
Sema refers to the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, signed Thursday in Malacanang.
According to him, the Sema-led faction “affirmed its committment and loyalty to its obligations as stipulated in the 1996 FPA specifically the integration of 7,500 MNLF elements into the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine National Police (PNP), out of the 5,750 slots provided in the FPA.”
Sema said the “Philippine government did not comply [with its obligation to implement the genuine political autonomous government within the framework of the 1996 FPA.”
The government. Sema said, “failed to pass a proposed bill that seeks to amend RA 9054 to resolve three remaining issues namely: plebiscite on territory, provisional government and sharing on strategic minerals.
“The GRP [government of the Republic of the Philippines] wants to converge the two agreement but the problem is they want to converge two different agreements. But the MNLF supports the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) position that the FAB shall link to the 1976 Tripoli Agreement /1996 FPA,” Sema said.
The Sema faction “is open to resolve this problem in the proper mechanism within the ambit of the OIC.”
Sema proposed a quadripartite council that will include representatives from the OIC, the Philippine government, the MNLF, and the MILF to “put a closure first on tripartite review and to harmonize the two peace agreements from each representative.”
On the otherhand, the GPH position is “that all the issues attending the Tripartite Implementation Review has already been resolved and that it is now the right time to complete the process and implement what will be agreed upon under the Tripartite Implementation Review framework”.
Sema also claimed that the soon to be established Bangsamoro Polictical Entity come 2016 will be politicalized “unless and until the 1996 FPA entered by the GRP-MNLF will be harmonized and implemented.”
The MNLF EC15 was formed in 2001 by a group of MNLF leaders who turned away from Misuari. The faction has claimed support from 23 state committee and eight division members of Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Force. (Mart D. Sambalud/davaotoday.com)
