Achieving lasting peace entails patience, steadfastness and leadership: MILF Chair

• Mar 29, 2016
• Gandhi Kinjiyo, Luwaran
• HITS: 1951

The Chairman of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said it takes patience, steadfastness and leadership on both the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and MILF to reach the ultimate goal of achieving just and lasting peace in Mindanao.

This was one of the highlights of his message read by the MILF Central Committee Secretary Mohammad Ameen during the commemoration of the 2nd year of Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) signing held in Cotabato City on March 28.

Murad said in his speech that peace is elusive as the Philippine Congress failed to enact the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), a piece of legislation aimed “to end the more than four (4) decades of war and conflict” in Southern Philippines.

The government and the MILF signed the CAB on March 27, 2014, a peace agreement that embodies the aspirations of the Bangsamoro people and solutions to the decades of conflict in the Bangsamoro homeland.

The CAB provides the enactment of the BBL by Philippine Congress for the realization of the peace truce. The MILF expressed its lamentation for the government’s failure to comply with its obligation to pass the proposed measure. As stated in the CAB, it is the unilateral obligation of the state to enact the Bangsamoro law.

“Turning our backs on the peace process would be a mistake. After all, we have the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro intact, and which is over and above the Bangsamoro Basic Law,” Murad stressed.

The MILF Chair recently met with the Prime Minister of Malaysia and the Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation who both advised the MILF to stay on the course of the peace process.

The Front had earlier pronounced its adherence to the peace process despite the frustrations following the sad fate of the BBL on the hands of the lawmakers.

“It is worth reiterating that the CAB sets up a new relationship between the Central Government and the Bangsamoro Government that would involve fulfilling the many legal obligations each party has assumed to put an end to conflict,” Murad’s speech read.

He related, “To name a few, the Central Government agreed to relinquish some governmental powers to the Bangsamoro government, and to share in the revenues generated within the region.”

“The MILF, on the other hand, agreed to terms of decommissioning where combatants would turn over weapons and enjoy various developmental and capacity-building programs as part of the normalization process,” the MILF Chairman said.

As a gesture of good faith to give real and lasting peace a chance, the MILF subjected some of its combatants to a decommissioning process last June 2015.

The MILF leader said the Front remains committed to strengthen the ceasefire mechanisms, through our able and competent MILF representatives in the various peace process infrastructures, such as, the Joint Normalization Committee, and the CCCH, AHJAG, Joint Peace and Security Committee, Joint Peace and Security Team, Task Force on Decommissioned Combatants and their Communities, and Joint Task Force on Camps Transformation.

“What comes next after this is both a challenge and an opportunity to all stakeholders since these crucial times shall ultimately decide the genuine willingness of the parties, more so the government, to put an end to conflict in the region.”

Murad said, “We know that the government has a critical role in bringing peace, and we want to reach that optimal point where we do not need to question the commitment of the government to improve security, peace and services to our people.”

Peace advocates, MILF Officials, structures created by the peace process and donor agencies graced the event. 

 

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