OIC brokers MNLF-MILF meet in Saudi

COTABATO CITY, Philippines  – The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) have agreed to pursue stronger coordination to accelerate the peace process as espoused by the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC).

The MILF, in an e-mailed statement, said its representatives, in fact, met with emissaries of the MNLF last Dec. 6 to 7 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to discuss how both sides can also help each other attain a peaceful solution to the so-called “Moro problem” in Mindanao.

The meeting was brokered by the OIC, comprising more than 50 Islamic countries, including wealthy petroleum-exporting states in the Middle East and North Africa, which helped in the crafting of the Sept. 2, 1996 government-MNLF final peace pact.  

The MILF said it did not announce the meeting until yesterday due to reasons it did not reveal.

The MNLF was represented in the two-day meeting by lawyer Randolph Parcasio and Abdulbaki Abubakar, Nur Misuari’s legal and spiritual advisers, respectively.

The MILF delegation, on the other hand, was composed of Robert Maulana Alonto, Salim Sahaji, and Mashor Haqqani.

It was Libya’s former strongman, the late Moammar Gadhafi, who first attempted, from 2001 to 2007, to reunite the MNLF and MILF, through the Libyan embassy, convinced that it would be easier for Malacañang and Moro communities in Mindanao to craft a peace roadmap for troubled Muslim-dominated areas.

The OIC, which has a special committee focused on Mindanao issues, had also passed several resolutions urging the two groups to work together in pushing forward the peace process.

The OIC, the MNLF and the government are still initiating a review of the peace pact signed by Misuari and former President Fidel Ramos to iron out its perceived weaknesses and misunderstandings on the implementation of some of its sensitive provisions.

The tripartite evaluation of the government-MNLF peace accord is focused on five concerns: the political representation of Moro communities; natural resources; regional security; education; and the Sharia justice system.

In their Jeddah meeting, the MNLF, the MILF, and the OIC agreed to also keep each other abreast on all developments in the Mindanao peace process.

The consensus reached by the MNLF and MILF was stated in a joint communiqué signed by Parcasio, Maulana and the OIC’s envoy to Mindanao’s Muslim communities, Kasim El-Masry.

The MILF is a breakaway group from the once monolithic MNLF led by Misuari.

The MILF’s founder, the late Salamat Hashim, who helped establish the MNLF in 1972, bolted in 1983 along with dozens of his Maranaw and Maguindanaon followers over irreconcilable differences with Misuari and subsequently established their own group, which is more religious in character.   

The Misuari-led MNLF split into four factions after Misuari’s lieutenants broke ties with him in 2000 due to loss of confidence in his leadership and organized their respective groups, the most dominant of which is led by Datu Muslimin Sema, the incumbent vice mayor of Cotabato City.