RATHER than waging a conflict with the government, Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) founding Chairman Nur Misuari should work with the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) and help ensure peace and the development of Mindanao, Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana said over the weekend.
The defense chief was reacting to Misuari’s threat, as disclosed by President Duterte, to return to war. The Moro leader allegedly said he would go to war if the Federal form government, which Misuari sees as an alternative to the BARMM, will not be initiated and passed by the Duterte administration.
Misuari, who sees the BARMM and even the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) as only favoring the rival Moro group Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), met with Duterte and security officials in Malacañang last week.
“He is missing a great chance to be really relevant,” Lorenzana said. “He should accept the BARMM, work within it and lend his leadership, stature and experience to make it succeed.”
The defense secretary believed that Misuari was just bluffing when he threatened to go into war, as he no longer has enough manpower. Lorenzana, however, admitted that the Moro leader and his group “can still create trouble” like the attack of several villages of Zamboanga City in 2013.
“They are still capable of creating trouble like what they did in the Zamboanga City siege. But war? Not anymore. He no longer has the manpower, as most of his men have gravitated to the BARMM,” he said. “Misuari’s threat is just sound-bites in an attempt to make himself be noticed.”
Misuari’s war threat was the second one coming from the former Moro secessionist group in less than a month following the threat of lawyer and Lanao Sultan Firdausi Abbas to break away with the Yusop Jikiri faction of the MNLF and continue the secessionist struggle of the Moro group.
Jikiri was not satisfied with the composition of the BTA, which he said was dominated by the MILF and was not a representation of groups in Mindanao that will be affected and covered by the BARMM.
Meanwhile, Muslimin Sema, former chairman of the MNLF and who led another faction of the group, said he and the group’s Central Committee are fully supportive of Duterte’s effort to bring peace in Mindanao, although they still see the 1996 Final Peace Agreement (FPA) as the best course toward this effort.
“Upon consultation with the MNLF Central Committee, we, the members of the MNLF Central Committee, and its entire hierarchy and membership, hereby commit ourselves to pursue the path of lasting peace by standing behind the duly constituted authority of our country led by Duterte, as a means of achieving our aspiration for the best quality of life for our people,” he said.
Sema issued the statement in order to clarify the position of the MNLF leadership following what he said were threats by “a certain individual misleading our people regarding the true intentions and aspirations of the MNLF.”
He said the MNLF still adheres to the provisions of the 1996 Peace Agreement, which it signed with the government and witnessed by the Republic of Indonesia and the Organization of Islamic Conference Secretary-General.
“While federalism may be a solution to the Bangsamoro issue, the [peace agreement] does not provide for it but merely for meaningful autonomy and the integration of our fighters to the AFP,” Sema said.
Sema added he believes their “quest for meaningful autonomy” can be realized through fully implemented peace agreements such as the 1996 FPA and the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro.