GENERAL Santos City: The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on Monday said that it would no longer continue negotiating peace if the government rejected its demand for a Bangsamoro (Filipino Muslim) sub-state.
Al Haj Murad Ibrahim, the chairman of the MILF Central Committee, said that he feels bad that up to now, negotiations with the government panel have gone nowhere. He added that no agreement on any substantive point was reached during the formal negotiations in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from August 22 to 23 since both sides were yet to settle the issue that negotiations should be held within the framework of the Constitution. This lack of progress in the peace talks may force the group to abandon the negotiations, Murad said.
The MILF chief said that it would be difficult for both panels to discuss any substantial matter if government negotiators limited themselves to what is allowed under the Constitution.
“If the government is not yet ready to accept our proposed Bangsamoro sub-state, then we will be forced to decide not to return to the negotiating table,” Murad told The Manila Times during a telephone interview.
The government panel led by Marvic Leonen said that a sub-state is not allowed under the Constitution, offering instead a 3-in-one proposal or “three components for one solution to the Bangsamoro problem.” Leonen explained that their proposal, which includes massive economic development, political settlement and cultural-historical acknowledgment, seeks not just to bring peace in the South but to uplift the lives of the people there.
But the MILF rejected the government proposal. Michael Mastura, a member of the MILF peace panel, earlier said that peace negotiations could continue if the government panel dropped its 3-in-1 proposal and drafted a new Memorandum of Understanding on Ancestral Domain.
The peace talks bogged down in 1998 when the Supreme Court ruled that the memorndum was unconstitutional.
Mastura said what the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional was not the agreement but the process.
Formal negotiations between the MILF and the government started in February 2010, a few months after President Benigno Aquino 3rd assumed office.
Also on Monday, the MILF kicked out renegade commander Ameril Umbra Kato, making him open to police and military offensives.
Ghadzali Jaafar, MILF vice chairman for political affairs, made the confirmation saying that Kato, who once headed the 106th Base Command of the MILF, failed to heed the call of the ulamas or Muslim religious leaders to patch things with Murad.
“The [MILF] Central Committee already confirmed that he is no longer MILF based on his letter dated 19th of last month declaring officially that he was no longer MILF, including his men,” Jaafar said. “The Central Committee will come up with a resolution confirming their decision that they’re no longer MILF.”
He added that Kato also disregarded the pleas of the ulamas that gave him until September 26 to talk with the MILF chairman for a possible reconciliation.
“He was given two weeks, those two weeks will expire today,” Jaafar said. “He ignored the appeal of the ulamas for him to go back to the fold of the MILF, he stood pat, he insisted on staying out of the MILF.”
He added that Kato is now on his own and no longer covered by a ceasefire agreement with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
AFP chief Gen. Eduardo Oban said that Kato has a pending warrant of arrest.
Kato, with some 5,000 sympathizers, now reportedly leads the renegade group Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighter.
The MILF Central Committee declared Kato a “bougat” or one who defies or does not obey an order.
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