COTABATO CITY—An amendment to the Constitution was needed to accommodate a proposal by the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to create a sub-state in Mindanao through a peaceful settlement of the Moro rebellion on the island.
Mohaqher Iqbal, MILF chief negotiator, said the MILF has dropped its pursuit of the proposed Bangsamoro Juridical Entity that was part of the aborted Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domains (MOA-AD) drafted under the Arroyo administration.
In an interview Thursday, Iqbal said the MOA-AD may be dead, “but the concept remains. We will push for it.”
This time, however, the MILF is pushing for a sub-state in Mindanao for the Moro people, according to Iqbal.
Iqbal said in the MILF draft, “we proposed an asymmetrical state-sub-state arrangement.”
“The government will have to amend the Constitution,” said Iqbal.
Defining powers
He said the powers of the central government and the sub-state would have to be defined in the peace talks.
“We are always optimistic about a sub-state concept because we believe it will address the Moro question,” Iqbal added.
To appease critics, Iqbal said the areas that would be placed under the sub-state would be those where there is “Moro majority.”
Iqbal said constituents of areas that would form part of the proposed sub-state would be consulted.
“We are confident because these are Moro areas,” he said.
He refused to name the areas. Iqbal, however, said the MILF has bent backward to give up areas that Moro people have considered part of their ancestral domain.
Modified demand
The MILF’s original demand was for a separate state. Through the years, the MILF has modified its demand to cover just several areas in Mindanao.
Peace talks between the government and the MILF were stalled in August 2008 after the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional the draft MOA-AD. This later led to attacks on civilian, mostly Christian communities, by MILF commanders.
The MILF is a breakaway group of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), which signed a peace agreement with the government in 1996.
At the opening of the Peace Summit in Shariff Kabunsuan Cultural Center in Cotabato City on Monday, Vice Mayor Muslimin Sema, who represented the MNLF as chair of one of its three factions, said although the MNLF is not opposed to the peace process with the MILF, it wasn’t optimistic about a peace pact with its erstwhile rival group.
“What other solution then can be laid down on the negotiating table?” Sema said.
Another solution
Answering his own question, Sema said the only solution, as far as the MNLF is concerned, is to enhance the autonomy that is already in place, referring to the five province, one city Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
But MILF vice chair for political affairs Ghazali Jaafar, in an interview also yesterday, said the MILF doesn’t see an expanded ARMM as a solution.
“The ARMM failed to address the Moro problem. Self-determination of the Bangsamoro people is the key to peace in the Moro homeland,” Jaafar said. Nico Alconaba and Edwin Fernandez, Inquirer Mindanao
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