NUR Misuari, founding chairman of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), was reported last Wednesday as proposing the inclusion of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in a new round of talks with the government for peace in Mindanao.
Many are wondering about these continuing talks for peace in Mindanao, when we just organized the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). The previous administration of President Benigno S Aquino III pushed hard for the Bangsamoro but it came into being only after new President Duterte made it his top program for Mindanao, along with a federal system of government.
The BARMM is now an established fact, following its approval by Congress and the appointment of interim officials led by Chief Minister Murad Ebrahim for the transition period up to 2022. He used to lead the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), whose fighters are now being integrated into the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
But the efforts for peace in Mindanao are far from over. For President Duterte must now work with Misuari and the MNLF.
The fact is Moros are not a single ethnic group. There are many separate groups, each with its own linguistic and cultural tradition. Misuari’s MNLF was able to achieve the establishment of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in 1989 but the MILF broke off and continued to fight the government, until it achieved the establishment of the BARMM this year.
Then there are many other non-Moro indigenous groups in Mindanao collectively referred to as Lumad. There are also sizable groups of descendants of Christian settlers from the Visayas and Luzon. President Duterrte himself is descended from a Cebu family on his father’s side and a Leyte family on his mother’s side.
With such divisions in Mindanao today, there is bound to be conflict. A big part of this conflict has been settled with the establishment of the BARMM led by the MILF in central Mindanao, but now President Duterte must turn his attention to the other major Moro group, the MNLF of Misuari in western Mindanao.
The MNLF has already been asked to help the government deal with the Abu Sayyaf, an outlaw group active in Sulu and Basilan, specializing in the kidnapping of foreigners for ransom. The President’s meeting with Misuari was the fourth this year. It was at this meeting that Misuari suggested the inclusion of the OIC in the talks. The OIC, composed of the world’s leading Muslim nations, helped in the original establishment of ARMM in 1989.
The nation’s hopes go with President Duterte in this continuing search for peace in Mindanao. We hope he will succeed where so many previous administrations have failed.
