Peace activists rue 14 'wasted years' of MNLF peace pact

Peace campaigners lamented what they called a “missed opportunity" to settle political issues in Mindanao as they marked the 14th anniversary of a peace pact between government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) on Thursday. On September 2, 1996, peace negotiators, led by Ambassador Manuel Yan, and MNLF founding Chairman Nur Misuari forged e peace agreement in Indonesia after almost four years of hard bargaining. The Mindanao-based Peace Advocates Zamboanga (PAZ) said the 1996 agreement had the ability to “really strengthen the Bangsa Moro people around the concept of autonomy and progress." “Part of the problem faced by the 1996 Final Peace Agreement (FPA) was that “there was no supervisory body to handle its implementation. The peace brokers just gave up after the agreement. And this is a lesson we need to learn," PAZ president Claretian Father Angel Calvo said in an article posted Thursday on the Union of Catholic Asian News website. MNLF secretary general for Foreign Affairs Ustadz Abdulbaqi Abubakar also downplayed the significance of the agreement. He said the review of the peace pact, through the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, must continue to make the pact more responsive to the needs of the Moro people. “It is not worth celebrating. It has not done anything to improve the lives of the Bangsamoro people," he said. Father Eliseo Mercado, president of Kusog Mindanao, noted that while the government is claiming "partial compliance," the MNLF is “contesting" it. “After 14 years the implementation of the deal, the programs, the institutionalization of the agreement through Republic Act (RA) 9054, have all been contested," he said. RA 9054, otherwise known as, "An Act to Strengthen and Expand the Organic Act for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM)" strengthens and expands the law creating the ARMM. The ARMM is the region in Mindanao composed of all the Philippines' predominantly Muslim provinces, namely: Basilan (except Isabela City), Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, and Marawi City. The ARMM is the only region that has its own government. Meanwhile, Muslim leaders also said they are not happy with the 1996 agreement. Amina Rasul, lead convenor of the Philippine Council for Islam and Democracy (PCID), said Muslims’ lives have become worse since the FPA was signed. “I am saddened by the situation of the Muslims of the Philippines who have not improved their conditions since the signing of the FPA in 1996. Instead, the conditions are worse," Rasul said. –VVP, GMANews.TV