'New MNLF leader's' claims belied

LANAO DEL SUR,  Philippines - The leader of the “new” Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) who “replaced” Nur Misuari last week had long surrendered to the government and availed himself of former President Marcos’ amnesty program,” local executives in the province said.

According to relatives, Abul Khayr Alonto, who is an ethnic Maranaw, and many of his surviving comrades in the MNLF’s “Top 90 had clandestine “backdoor dealings” with the Marcos regime even before the signing of the 1976 Tripoli Agreement in Libya. "Top 90” is the pioneer 90 Moro recruits that trained in guerilla warfare in Jampiras Island in Malaysia in the early 1970s to fight the government.

Sources from the Maranaw political community said Alonto and many of his MNLF comrades who surrendered to the government,  had enjoyed “livelihood and political perks” Marcos gave them in exchange for their surrender, such as logging concessions, exclusive rights to export bangus (milkfish) fry and import canned sardines, and even matches and cooking oil, for resale to local retail outlets.

The Tripoli agreement --- brokered by the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) and signed by Misuari and government representatives, led by then Ambassador Manuel Yan and Defense Secretary Carmelo Barbero, on December 23, 1976 in the Libyan capital --- was to become the major reference, along with the Philippine Constitution, in the crafting of the September 2, 1996 final GPH-MNLF truce. 

“Misuari can only be replaced by someone who has not surrendered to the government and [benefited from] its reconciliation and amnesty program before the final GPH-MNLF peace agreement was signed,” a senior official of the group in the province told The Star.

Misuari is leader of one of at least three factions in the MNLF, which became fragmented in 2000 owing to the irreconcilable differences of the members of the central leadership of the rebel group.

Alonto’s group, in a resolution, said 33 of the surviving 39 “Top 90” commanders gave him imprimatur to assume Misuari’s post. 

The MNLF’s largest and most politically active group, led by former Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema, declined to comment on the reported “reorganization” of the MNLF by Alonto and several veteran commanders that trained in Malaysia and fought the government in the 1970s.

“We just have to wait and see and observe from a distance. Our group is not a hostile group. It will always exhaust all peaceful means of threshing out issues and concerns regarding the peace process,” Sema said in a text message. The group of Sema has more than 20 “revolutionary states” scattered across Southern Mindanao.

Sema said their dealings with the government remain within the parameters of the relationship that binds together Malacañang, the MNLF and the OIC,  a bloc of more than 50 Muslim states, including petroleum exporting countries in the Middle East and North Africa. The OIC helped broker the September 2, 1996 GPH-MNLF final peace accord.

Sema said their group, meantime,  will commemorate the 46th anniversary of the March 18, 1968 Jabidah Massacre, the precursor of the Southern Mindanao Moro struggle for self governance under the international right-to-self determination (RSD) doctrine.

“The ember of national liberation still glows in the hearts of the thousands of fighters, political and military, the young and old. This glow continues to unite us despite the obscurities, setbacks and vacillation,” Sema’s group said in an official statement on the 46th anniversary of the Jabidah Massacre.

ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman declared March 18 a non-working holiday in the autonomous region in commemoration of the incident.