Gov’t, MILF panels back in KL to finalize peace pact details

Angela Casauay

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Preparations are underway for the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro in Malacañang on March 27

ELUSIVE NO MORE? The government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front are set to sign a final peace agreement on March 27, 2014 after 17 years of negotiations. Photo by Rappler

MANILA, Philippines – Perhaps for the last time, the peace panels of the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are back in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to finalize the details of the peace agreement to be signed on Thursday, March 27.  

The panels, led by chief negotiators Miriam Coronel-Ferrer of the government and Mohagher Iqbal of the MILF, are expected to “initial” the comprehensive peace document Friday, March 21, or Saturday, March 22, former alternate peace panel member Chito Gascon said in a forum on electoral systems and political parties in Makati Friday. 

The final peace pact between the government and the MILF – formally known as the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) – aims to give create a new political entity in Mindanao. It have greater political autonomy than the present Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), which it will replace. 

More than a thousand guests are expected to witness the signing of the CAB, Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said in a Malacañang briefing Friday. 

Just like when the initial Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro was signed in October 2012, the venue of the signing will be in Malacañang. 

Ferrer and Iqbal, as chief negotiators, will sign the CAB with Malaysian Third Party Facilitator Tengku Dato’ Ab Ghafar Tengku Mohamed serving as the witness. 

President Benigno Aquino III, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Quintos Deles, and MILF chief Al Haj Murad Ebrahim are expected to deliver their messages during the historic event, the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process said in a statement.  

All parties who helped the peace process over the 17-year negotiations with the MILF have been invited, including members of the diplomatic corps, the International Contact Group, and the International Monitoring Team. 

President Benigno Aquino III has personally invited Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak to grace the event, but Lacierda said he has yet to confirm his attendance – amid the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane. Malaysia brokered the talks between the government and the MILF. 

Leaders of MILF’s rival group, the Moro National Liberation Front, have also been invited, Lacierda said. The MNLF signed a peace agreement with the government in 1996. In September 2013, a faction of the group led by its founding chairman Nur Misuari held Zamboanga City hostage. The standoff killed at least 110 people and displaced over 100,000 individuals.

ARMM gears up for signing

In Cotabato City, where the seat of the ARMM is located, preparations are also underway for the big event. 

In a statement, ARMM Executvie Secretary Laisa Alamia said there will be “a celebration of peace in the Bangsamoro” on the day of the signing. 

Large screens will be set up inside the ARMM compound to allow the people to witness the signing. At night, a simultaneous music and cultural fest in all 5 provinces (Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi) of the region will be held. 

After the signing of the peace deal, the Transition Commission, headed by Iqbal, is expected to submit the draft of the Basic Law to Malacañang by the end of March or early April.

The draft law, which will provide the legal framework for the Bangsamoro, will be certified as urgent by the President and passed on to Congress. 

Asked how confident Malacañang is that Congress will support the creation of the Bangsamoro, Lacierda underscored the full support of the executive branch for the measure. 

“The OPAPP, the Office of Secretary Ging Deles has already made the rounds with the House and the Senate and (has been) briefing them on the comprehensive agreement on the Bangsamoro; meaning, the Bangsamoro Framework Agreement plus the 4 annexes. We certainly would hope that the House and the Senate, realizing how important and how vital this particular peace agreement is to the development in Mindanao, would support (it). If there would be some issues raised, I think, the Executive branch will be there to help our fellow legislators clarify some of their concerns,” Lacierda said. 

The government and the MILF peace panels are also in the process of finalizing the terms of reference for the different bodies that will oversee the normalization process in the Bangsamoro, which includes the decommissioning of MILF troops and arms. 

Under the peace deal, the MILF will not decommission their arms directly to the government but rather to an independent third party, which will also propose the most appropriate way to deal with rebel firearms. (READ: Normalization 101: Firearms, amnesties and rebel camps)

The CAB is a consolidation of the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro, 4 annexes on wealth-sharing, power-sharing, transitional mechanisms and normalization, as well as an addendum on Bangsamoro Waters– Rappler.com

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