COTABATO CITY, Philippines – The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) will cease to exist as 'revolutionary group' after it forges a final peace deal with government, MILF chief negotiator Muhaquer Iqbal said.
Iqbal, who is also concurrent chairman of the MILF’s information committee, said their group will focus on governance and in addressing security and economic issues once the Bangsamoro political entity has been established.
Peace talks between the government and MILF started Jan. 7, 1997, but gained headway only in 2003 with the involvement of Malaysia as 'third party facilitator.'
More than a dozen other foreign peace advocacy outfits and international donor organizations are also directly assisting in the on-going GPH-MILF talks.
“We in the MILF are optimistic our dream of a peaceful, progressive Bangsamoro homeland will be realized,†Iqbal said.
The MILF’s website, www.luwaran.com, earlier said in one of its recent news posts that the rebel group is even contemplating on becoming a fully operational political party after if signs a final peace accord with government.
Iqbal said they are confident that the Bangsamoro political entity will be in place before the 2016 synchronized local and presidential electoral exercise.
The government and MILF peace panels are now finalizing the last two annexes- on power sharing and normalization- to be fused with the Oct. 15, 2012 Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro (FAB).
The FAB is to become the basis for an enabling law that would legitimize the creation of the Bangsamoro region.
The Bangsamoro region will, as a consequence, replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao if approved by Southern Mindanao residents through a plebiscite.
“By then, one in place, there is no more reason for the MILF to continue to exist as a revolutionary front,†Iqbal said.
He said the MILF is grateful to President Aquino and all the foreign and local organizations helping push the peace talks forward.
The MILF splintered from the Moro National Liberation Front in the early 1980s when its founder, Imam Salamat Hashim, a cleric who graduated from the secular Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, bolted from the MNLF due to irreconcilable differences with Nur Misuari.
Hashim, an ethnic Maguindanaon from Barangay Kudal in Pagalungan town in Maguindanao, helped Misuari organized the MNLF in the early 1970s.
The MILF, which is religious in character, is now led by Al-Haj Murad Ebrahim, who also originally belonged to the MNLF. He took over the MILF leadership following Hashim's death from a heart ailment in July 2003.