MILF, MNLF meet for common stand on BBL

COTABATO CITY – The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) have agreed to “harmonize” their respective peace deals with the government to be able to produce a common stand and streamline efforts that could lead to lasting peace in Mindanao.

Technical working groups of the MILF and MNLF met here on Saturday and Sunday to review the provisions of the Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro (CAB) of 2014 in relation to the Final Peace Agreement (FPA) of 1996 and the Tripoli Accord of 1976.

The MILF group was led by Professor Abhoud Syed Linnga, while the MNLF team was anchored by Vice Chair Hatimil Hassan.

The CAB was forged by the government and MILF in March 2014 and formed the basis for the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) that got stalled in the 16th Congress, while the FPA was signed during the administration of former President Fidel V. Ramos in 1996, which became the basis of Republic Act 9054 that expanded the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

Both peace deals recognized the 1976 Tripoli Accord entered during the time of ex-President Ferdinand Marcos.

Renowned Muslim lawyer Sultan Ferdausi Abbas said the two-day meeting resulted in the drafting of a reconciled position of the MILF and MNLF on the desire of the Duterte administration to constitute a commission to draft an enhanced version of the BBL.

In his first State-of-the-Nation Address (SONA) on July 25, President Duterte asked Congress to legislate the BBL minus the “contentious issues,” which he said, could only be restored after consultations with the acknowledged leaders of MNLF like Nur Misuari, Muslimin Sema and Abul Khayr Alonto.

Duterte underscored that a consensus among MILF and MNLF leaders, as well as other stakeholders, was the only solution to end decades of Moro rebellion in Mindanao.

Sema, who heads the largest faction of the MNLF, said the meeting here fleshed out the joint communiqué he forged with MILF Chairman Hadji Murad Ebrahim on July 29 to harmonize the salient provisions of the CAB and the FPA into a concrete document that may guide the Duterte government in addressing the “historical injustice” among the Moro people.

The two-day meeting here was attended by MILF technical experts, led by Lingga, and counterparts from the MNLF represented by Abbas, Hassan, Abdul Saharin, Yusoph Jikiri, and Abu Hamri Taddik.