COTABATO CITY – Officials of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) have recommended the region as a “suitable venue” for the second tripartite meeting on Jan. 14 among representatives of Malacañang, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC).
The three-way conference, preceded by the first tripartite meeting last Nov. 10-12 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, is aimed at resolving the perceived kinks and weaknesses in certain provisions of the Sept. 2, 1996 government-MNLF peace agreement.
Sulu Gov. Sakur Tan, in a brief meeting yesterday with ARMM Gov. Datu Zaldy Ampatuan here, said the island-province of Sulu, the known birthplace of the MNLF, could be the most appropriate venue for the Jan. 14 tripartite meeting.
“The founder of the MNLF is a Tausog from Sulu. Atty. Nabil Tan, head of the Philippine delegation dealing with the MNLF and OIC, is also a Tausog from Sulu. The province has an atmosphere so conducive to the next tripartite meeting,” Tan said.
The Sulu governor is an elder sibling of Nabil, the deputy presidential adviser on the peace process. Nabil was vice governor of ARMM from 1993 to 1996.
Ampatuan said the Philippine government has asked the OIC secretary-general Ekmeliddin Ishanuglo to hold the Jan. 14 tripartite meeting in the country.
Ampatuan, a member of the Philippine delegation to the Jeddah meeting, said it is the OIC that will decide on the venue of the next conference, subject to coordination with both the government and the MNLF.
“I shall be honored if the OIC will decide to hold the next tripartite meeting in the ARMM, in any part of the ARMM,” said Ampatuan, who chairs the regional peace and order council.
Ampatuan said he would have the chance to show to OIC representatives his local and foreign-funded projects in communities where MNLF members reside.
Ampatuan said jailed MNLF founder Nur Misuari would also have a big chance of participating in the meeting if it is held in the country.
Misuari has been detained since 2002 for leading a failed mutiny in Jolo two weeks before the November 2001 ARMM elections, fearing that the electoral exercise would boot him out of power.
Misuari was not allowed by the courts to attend the Jeddah meeting for failing to secure a “sovereign guarantee” from the Saudi Arabian government that he would return to the Philippines after the conference.
Ampatuan said the government should first iron out its misunderstandings with the MNLF before it signs a peace pact with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
Peace talks between the government and the MILF, which is more religious in character, started on Jan. 7, 1997, but gained headway only in 2003 with the help of Malaysia as mediator.