MILF to Moros: Reject 'Filipino' tag

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on Wednesday called on Moros to reject being labeled as Filipinos, saying they were never Filipinos throughout their history. MILF deputy spokesman Khaled Musa said Mindanao and Sulu were separate from the Philippines when it declared independence on June 12, 1898. “Only subjects of Spain and Catholics at that were classified as Filipinos and clearly both prerequisites are not found in Moros," he said in an article on the MILF website. But despite the call, he said Moros are still citizens of the Philippines, but he did not elaborate on this. Musa issued the call in response to what he considered government efforts to deny the Moros of their inherent birthright. Citing provisions of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD), which was rejected by the Supreme Court in 2008, Musa said that by birthright the document means the "birthright of all Moros and all indigenous peoples of Mindanao to identify themselves and be accepted as ‘Bangsamoro’ (Moro Nation)." He said a nation can be formed when people "clearly expressed desire of continuing the common life." But in a statement early this year, Rafael Segius, the head of the government peace panel in the Mindanao peace talks, said that the creation of something similar to last year’s controversial Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE) is not included in the draft peace proposal they submitted to the MILF. [See: Homeland issue still casting shadow on GRP-MILF talks] “There is no mention of any ‘Bangsa Moro’ sub-state in our draft," he said, adding that the draft was “guided by the Supreme Court decision on the aborted MOA-AD," Seguis added. The MOA-AD, which the Supreme Court ruled as unconstitutional, would have created the BJE, which would have given broad governing powers to Moros in an expanded Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). — LBG/RSJ, GMANews.TV