Gov’t to include Misuari group in peace effort

THE PHILIPPINE government will create a body that seeks to include a breakaway Muslim rebel group in efforts to end decades of strife in the Mindanao region, the presidential palace said yesterday.

President Rodrigo R. Duterte met with Moro National Liberation Front Chairman Nur Misuari in Davao City last Friday to discuss how his group can help bring peace to southern Philippines, presidential spokesman Salvador S. Panelo said in a statement.

The president told Mr. Misuari about his desire to form a coordinating committee between the government and MNLF.

Mr. Duterte also ordered his peace adviser to convene the coordinating committee by the second week of September in Davao City to set the agenda and start discussions with Mr. Misuari’s group.

Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito G. Galvez, Jr. said last week Mr. Duterte was considering creating another autonomous government for the MNLF.

Mr. Misuari wants to involve the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in the negotiations, Mr. Panelo said.

The setup is similar to past tripartite talks between the government and the MNLF that also involved the OIC to ensure that the Philippines, which is predominantly Catholic, fully complies with the 1996 peace agreement with Mr. Misuari’s group, Mr. Panelo said.

The government wants the MNLF to help it fight the Abu Sayyaf Group and convince families to return to the fold of the law, he added.

The Abu Sayyaf, the most violent terrorist group in the Mindanao region, uses terror for profit and to promote jihadist agenda, and engages in kidnapping for ransom, bombings, assassinations and extortion, according to the US National Counterterrorism Center.

The Muslim region in a Jan. 21 referendum overwhelmingly favored the creation of a new autonomous body known as Bangsamoro, which will have its own parliament, more political power and greater funding.

Bangsamoro will govern a greater territory than the old autonomous region after Cotabato, one of the more prosperous cities on the island, voted to be included.

Bangsamoro was created after years of talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which signed a separate peace deal with the government under then President Benigno S.C. Aquino III.

Lawmakers shelved the creation of the autonomous unit after a police operation in Mamasapano town, Maguindanao province turned deadly when 44 commandos were killed by Muslim rebels in January 2015.

Mindanao, the country’s food basket, has suffered from decades of Muslim insurgency, with many companies avoiding to invest in the region because of the war. — Arjay L. Balinbin