MNLF, OIC to assess 1996 peace pact

COTABATO CITY — Officials of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and representatives of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) will meet in the country on May 18 to plan an extensive assessment of the implementation of the Sept. 2, 1996 peace pact between the MNLF and the government.

Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema, MNLF secretary-general, said the meeting is in line with the efforts of the MNLF and President Arroyo to draw up measures to improve security in the front’s territories as well as the welfare of former Moro guerrillas.

Sema and Army chief Lt. Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. met here over the weekend and discussed mutual cooperation in maintaining peace and order in areas where MNLF members reside.

Esperon and Sema agreed to hold peace dialogues to resolve security constraints in many flashpoint areas in Mindanao.

They also pledged to fully cooperate in setting up monitoring committees, as what Malacañang and the OIC have agreed in principle, that would look into the strengths and weaknesses of the 1996 peace accord.

Sema said Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Speaker Hatimil Hassan, a key member of the MNLF’s leadership core, has confirmed that representatives of the OIC’s secretary-general and the so-called Ministerial Committee of the Eight are attending the May 18 meeting.

The Ministerial Committee, composed of eight OIC member-states, put up monitoring stations across Mindanao in the 1990s and helped monitor the implementation of the 1996 peace pact.

The OIC officials are also slated to visit former ARMM governor Nur Misuari, the MNLF’s founding chairman.

Misuari has been detained since 2002 for leading a failed mutiny in Jolo, Sulu in November 2001, about two weeks before the fourth ARMM elections which he opposed, fearing it would boot him out of power.

The MNLF has since been clamoring for a review of the peace pact, which it claimed has many weak provisions, to further improve security in the South.