By Alito L. Malinao (
Xinhua) 15:43, March 28, 2014
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Comments twitter facebook Sina Microblog reddit MANILA, March 28 -- After 17 years of on-and-off negotiations, the Philippinegovernment and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) finally signed Thursday theComprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) that both sides said would put anend to the decades-old conflict in Mindanao in southern Philippines.
The peace accord was signed by Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, chief government negotiator, andMohagher Iqbal, MILF chief negotiator, at a ceremony held in Malacanang presidentialpalace.
President Benigno Aquino III, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, and MILF ChairmanAl Haj Murad Ebrahim led some 1,000 congressional members, government officials, andforeign dignitaries in witnessing the signing ceremony.
In his remarks, Aquino said that the agreement stands as a testament on how far trust andearnestness can move humanity forward. "It shows how righteousness, reason andgoodwill are the mightiest of instruments of ending conflict," he said.
Both sides said that they expect to finish the basic law for the Bangsamoro by March 31.The draft of the law that would officially establish the Bangsamoro, a political entity thatwould have some federal-type sovereign powers, will be submitted to the PhilippineCongress for approval.
If passed, it will still be submitted to the people in the predominantly Muslim areas inMindanao for their approval through a plebiscite.
Both the government and the MILF have said that the agreement will be the key to thepeace, progress and development of Mindanao.
The peace accord is also aimed at ending an insurgency in Mindanao that has left anestimated 150,000 people dead since 1970s.
But realities on the ground may not bolster the optimism for peace of both the governmentand the MILF.
Nur Misuari, the acknowledged father of the Muslim rebellion in the Philippines, hasvehemently opposed the peace accord.
Misuari, who founded the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), the forerunner of theMILF, claimed that the government has reneged on its promises set forth in the l996 peaceaccord signed by the MNLF and the government.
During the tenure of former President Fidel V. Ramos, Misuari signed a peace pact withgovernment that resulted in the establishment of the Autonomous Region in MuslimMindanao (ARMM). But after the signing, the group's top commanders, including MuradEbrahim, who wanted a separate Muslim state, bolted out and formed the MILF.
Despite the emergence of the so-called splinter MNLF groups, Misuari is still a force toreckon with. In September last year, he ordered some 300 armed MNLF guerrillas to"invade" Zamboanga City just across the island province of Sulu, the MNLF's stronghold. Ittook the government about one month to end the siege of Zamboanga, leaving some 200dead and thousands of city residents displaced.
Misuari has been charged with rebellion but he is still at large. Some of his followers saythat he is just inside the country and could be planning another coordinated attack similarto what he did in Zamboanga.
Understandably, officials and residents of Zamboanga City, with only a few villagesdominated by Muslims, are strongly against the plan to include them in the Bangsamoro.
Aside from the MNLF, the other "spoilers" in the quest for peace in Mindanao are theBangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters ( BIFF), a renegade group of ragtag Muslimguerrillas led by Ombra Kato, a former top MILF commander, and the Abu Sayyaf, aterrorist group based in the island-province of Basilan in Mindanao reportedly linked to theIndonesian-based Jemaah Islamiyah and the Al-Qaida.
In the legal front, it is by no means smooth sailing for the peace pact. Former SenatePresident Juan Ponce Enrile, now the opposition leader in the Senate, has said that thepeace agreement should be studied carefully because the proposed Bangsamoro entity mayviolate the territorial provisions in the Constitution.
Some groups have already expressed their desire to question the legality of the creation ofBangsamoro in the Supreme Court once its organic law is passed.
In 2008, the Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional a similar version of the CAB,the establishment of the Bangsamoro juridical entity that was crafted by the governmentof then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the same MILF leaders.
Some analysts said that the rejoicing at the signing of the CAB could be premature becausemany things can still happen.
In its editorial Friday, the Manila Times, a leading daily in Manila, said that pragmatically,Aquino and his aides have made the MILF people believe that he could deliver what he hadpromised to them.
"Of course, he can't. We pray the result is not the MILF's feared eruption of violence, chaosand anarchy in Mindanao," the editorial warned.
（Editor：DuMingming、Liang Jun）
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