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Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Opposition denounces 'peace deal'
By Al Jacinto
ZAMBOANGA CITY -- An influential mayor in the southern Philippines denounced on Tuesday an alleged government deal that would give the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) a separate homeland in Mindanao.
Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat, an opposition leader, said Manila signed a secret deal with the rebels that would allow them to establish an Islamic state across Mindanao.
Lobregat said the government agreed to dismember Mindanao under the guise of the so-called Muslim ancestral domain, which the MILF demanded in the past.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has opened peace talks and forged a ceasefire in 2002 with the MILF, the largest Muslim separatist rebel group in the southern Philippines.
“This is a complete sellout and we will not allow Mindanao to be dismembered, and we must act swiftly before it is too late,” Lobregat, a former lawmaker, said in a news conference broadcast on radio stations here.
Lobregat said he spoke with lawmakers and politicians in the southern Philippines and they agreed to look into the agreement signed in September in Malaysia by government and rebel peace negotiators.
Some radio announcers were agitating the public and they called on the locals to stage a rally to protest the so-called secret agreement signed by the MILF and the government.
One phone caller even urged citizens to take up arms and fight the MILF to prevent the dismembering of Mindanao.
Many Arab countries, including the influential Organization of Islamic Conference and the United States, are supporting the peace talks in an effort to end more than three decades of hostilities in Mindanao.
Ghazali Jaafar, the MILF vice chairman for political affairs, on Tuesday said his group is unfazed by the series of negative remarks against the peace talks.
“There is nothing sinister in the peace talks and we are very sincere in pursuing an end to the Mindanao problems and bring peace and stability in the region.”
“We are urging everybody to join us and support the peace process and find a lasting and just solution to the Bangsamoro problem,” Jaafar said by phone from Maguindanao province.
Former senator Francisco Tatad also questioned the agreement signed by Manila with the MILF that would pave the way for the establishment of a Bangsamoro state.
“If we persist to be selfish, we will only be the ones left with internal strife that could last forever. Other states with similar problems are poised for settlements soon or have already settled them because their leaders are not selfish, greedy, and feeble minded,” he said.
Jaafar also cited the success of other countries in dealing with their own Muslim secessionist problems, like in Bougainville, Sudan, Eritrea, Kosovo, Ireland, East Timor, and even in Palestine.
Many people in Mindanao are also supporting the government's peace process.
Aleem Aziz Minbantas, the MILF's vice chairman for military affairs, expressed optimism about the peace talks.
Minbantas has praised President Arroyo for her support in resolving the MILF problems in Mindanao.
“The peace talks between the government and the MILF have been yielding positive breakthroughs, which indicate the high prospect of peacefully solving the centuries-old conflict in Mindanao,” he said.
The MILF earlier said a peace agreement with Manila would further strengthen the government's anti-terrorism campaign in Mindanao, where security forces and rebels have joined to hunt down Jemaah Islamiya and Abu Sayyaf militants tied to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
Muhammad Ameen, of the MILF's central committee, said: The peace deal would make the MILF a strong partner, such as, in combating syndicated crimes and other forms of evil activities, like terrorism."
MILF leaders on Tuesday met in Maguindanao and discussed how they could help the government disseminate information about the progress of the talks.
Rebel leaders were also planning to speak to politicians and business groups in Mindanao to allay fears or correct false reports about the peace talks.
Eid Kabalu, a spokesman for the MILF, said a peace pact with the government will further strengthen efforts to jointly combat terrorism in Mindanao.
"It will give us great opportunity to deal more effectively in combating not only threats of terrorism, but also criminality. The MILF is really sincere in bringing peace and help the government develop Mindanao," Kabalu said.
The MILF has signed previous agreements on several issues centered on the ancestral domain.
Both the government and rebel peace negotiators have already agreed on several important matters on ancestral domain--its concept, territories and resources, and will negotiate about how the MILF shall govern these places.
Ancestral domain refers to the MILF demand for territory that will constitute a Muslim homeland. It is the single most important issue in the peace negotiations
before the MILF can reach a political settlement.
Both sides have agreed on several crucial issues, including the coverage of a proposed ancestral domain in the five Muslim autonomous provinces of Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao, and other areas in Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani provinces, where there are large communities of Muslims and indigenous tribes.
Once an agreement is reached on how the MILF can govern these areas, the government and rebel peace negotiators would finally discuss the political settlement of the country's longest-running Muslim insurgency problem.
President Arroyo said early this year that 80 percent of the peace talks have been completed and that permanent peace in Mindanao is within reach.
“We have worked with the Organization of the Islamic Conference to forge peace with our Muslim brothers,” Arroyo said in her State of the Nation Address in July.
MILF chieftain Murad Ebrahim, for his part, said his group is sincere in the talks and is willing to end the hostilities in Mindanao.
“Peace is almost at hand. After decades of unrelenting struggle, our flickering hope for a just and comprehensive political solution to the Bangsamoro problem is rekindled. Our legitimate aspiration for a rightful place in our society has once again assumed its proper shape.”
“Our life-long dream to establish and develop our homeland as a permanent legacy to the next generation of Bangsamoro people, and the generation after that, which they can call their own, will soon--insha-Allah (God willing)--become a reality,” Ebrahim had told about 2 million supporters during a plenum in May in Maguindanao.
Peace talks are expected to resume after the Ramadan to finalize an agreement on the proposed homeland for three million Muslims on Mindanao. (Sun.Star Zamboanga/Sunnex)
(October 26, 2005 issue)
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