OIC team here to assess ’96 peace pact

COTABATO CITY — A traditional Moro welcome awaits representatives of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) during their stopover here today.

The OIC group headed by Sayed Kassem El-Masry will be briefed by Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan on his administration’s socio-economic initiatives in poor Muslim communities.

The OIC mission, accompanied by Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza, is part of the tripartite assessment of the implementation of the Sept. 2, 1996 peace accord between the government and the Moro National Liberation Front.

Ampatuan said the team from the OIC, a group of 54 Islamic countries, including Arab petroleum-exporting states which helped broker the peace pact, is led by Ambassadors Salem Adam and Irsan Tanjung of Libya and Indonesia, respectively.

El-Masry told airport reporters in Manila upon his team’s arrival yesterday that the results of their assessment, among other factors, would determine the Philippines’ bid to gain "observer" status in the OIC.

"We think this is the proper moment to monitor what has been implemented, what are the obstacles impeding the implementation of those that are not fully implemented, and how we can help remove these obstacles," he said.

Ampatuan said the OIC team’s visit to the ARMM "gives us the chance to relate to them how we have been trying our best to improve, through socio-economic initiatives, the lives of the people in the MNLF and MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front) strongholds in the autonomous region."

About 90 percent of MNLF members reside in the ARMM, which covers Marawi City, Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and Basilan.

Ampatuan said his technical staffers, led by lawyers Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi, Oscar Sampulna, Ishak Mastura, have prepared adequate briefing materials on the joint peace overtures of President Arroyo and his administration in areas covered by the 1996 peace pact.

He said he would inform the OIC representatives that he has appointed qualified members of the MNLF to sensitive positions in his Cabinet to involve the front in governance.

"This is for the MNLF to feel that we in the ARMM are advocating for a collective, cross-section type of leadership, one where all sectors in the region have equitable representation," he said.

Almost 90 percent of former MNLF fighters, who have been integrated into the Armed Forces and the Philippine National Police, as stipulated in the 1996 accord, are assigned in the ARMM.

The MNLF has been ranting about the government’s alleged non-compliance with certain provisions of the peace pact. — With Edith Regalado, Lino de la Cruz and Rainier Allan Ronda