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Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Moro group to send own team for charter convention: mayor
By Lino dela Cruz
* Ex-MNLF lauds GMA for constitutional change move
*Parliamentary-federal form of government is the legal way to achieve self-rule
MARAWI CITY -- A top ranking Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) leader welcomes President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's move for a constitutional change and said the proposed parliamentary-federal form of government is the best compromise for the Moro people's aspiration for self-rule.
Marawi City Mayor Omar Solitario Ali, a top ranking MNLF leader here who has been active in a movement for a federal form of government, said that he supports the President's move for a constitutional convention for the proposed charter change which he believes will pave the way for a parliamentary-federal form of government.
"The parliamentary-federal form of government is the legal way to achieve self-rule in which the national integrity and sovereignty are preserved," Ali said.
Once the constitutional convention will push through, the MNLF will elect its own delegates who are, apart from their respective credentials, experts in law, education and Islam, according to Ali.
He said that the MNLF and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) will then lose relevance since a party system will be established as elections for political positions in a federal state are held where the elected officials will work for state laws that are compatible for the Moro populace.
For three decades the Moro people waged an armed struggle to achieve self-rule, through the MNLF that signed a peace agreement with the government in 1996 that pave the way for the creation of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Optimistic
However, its breakaway group, MILF waged a secessionist movement and continued its armed struggle.
In 1997, the MILF and the government commenced a peace process that established a ceasefire agreement some three years ago and continued a series of peace negotiations.
This month of June, the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the MILF will resume another round of talks in Malaysia where both parties are optimistic that a final peace agreement could be reached.
During the MILF consultations in Darapanan, Simuay, Maguindanao last week where an estimated one million people attended, MILF chairman Al Hadj Ibrahim Murad said in a statement posted in luwaran.com
"Today is the day we can tell the Bangsamoro people and all peace loving people of our homeland that just, honorable and lasting peace is partly at hand" as he saw that a negotiated political settlement will soon be realized.
At the same time Murad praised President Arroyo for her political will and decisiveness to negotiate and submit to international arbitration through the governments of Malaysia and Libya and the support of the Organization of Islamic Countries which played a great role in the peace process.
(June 7, 2005 issue)
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