Chairman Murad Holds Highly Awaited Press Conference. at Camp Darapanan

August 25, 2008

  (source: www.luwaran.com)

August 25, 2008

Al Haj Murad Ebrahim, Chairman of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Central Committee, met the journalists in a highly-awaited press conference held August 23, 2008 at Camp Darapanan , Bangsamoro homeland. Senior members of the MILF Central Committee including Vice Chairman Ghazali Ghazali Jaafar for political affairs were also present. MILF Peace Negotiating Panel headed by Mohagher Iqbal with members Atty Datu Michael Mastura, Atty Lanang Ali, and Maulana Mohammad Alonto were also in attendance. 

 The press conference graced by international, national and local journalists lasted for three hours with discussions focused on the pressing issues confronting the currently “beleaguered” peace process between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and MILF

“The MILF conveys to our media friends its endless gratitude for acceding to our invitation for this press conference. We hope that through your efforts, the side of the MILF on so many issues and cases will be presented and understood. We took notice that for the past weeks, the side of MILF on various incidents and situation relative to the peace process, signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain and the recent spate of clashes and hostilities in some part of Mindanao was not clearly presented,” Chairman Murad said.
The following are excerpts from the statements of Chairman Murad and other top officials of the MILF.

MILF position is firm 
As we had said and manifested in the press and official statement I had earlier read, the MILF position is firm. “As far as we are concerned, the

Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA – AD) is a final document, a done deal.”
The MILF cannot allow renegotiation on the MOA – AD, which took both the MILF – GRP Peace Negotiating Panels four years and eight months to discuss and initialed through the superb facilitation of the Malaysian government.

The MOA –AD had been subjected by the government to review for many times. It was even subjected by the government to legal review by experts for almost four months. The MILF do not understand why it is only now they (government constituency) complaint about the document given the fact that the MOA – AD has been initialed by the two peace negotiating panels, Malaysian facilitator Datuk Othman Abdulradzak, and Secretary Hermogenes Esperon Jr of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process.

Apparently, the uproar is on the side of the government which led to the issuance of the Supreme Court to issue a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) for the scheduled signing of the MOA-AD last August 5, 2008 at the administrative capital of Malaysia in Selangor.

Consultations were done

As far as we know, years prior to the initialing and scheduled signing of the MOA – AD, the MILF and GRP peace negotiating Panels had agreed to conduct consultations and advocacy, separate and joint endeavors.

For the MILF, we had conducted series of consultations and advocacy with our constituencies, and we believe we had enough of such undertakings. In 2005, the MILF undertook a general consultation with the Bangsamoro people wherein more than two million people had attended. Our constituency had given us strong mandate in pursuing the peace process with the government and in forging a just and comprehensive negotiated political settlement that would finally resolved the Bangsamoro problem and conflict in Mindanao .

Apparently, however, there was a failure in consulting the constituency, to include the local government, armed forces and the cross-sections of the society of the Philippine government by our counterparts. That’s why there is now a strong uproar on their side. Although we believe there were consultations done by the government about the ancestral domain agenda but we do not know how they were conducted.   

Negotiating with the government

The MILF maintains the conviction that we are negotiating with the government and not its executive branch alone. We believe that the negotiating panel of the government is cloth with full authorities and mandate being representative of the government.

This negotiation is a negotiation with the government. The MILF cannot negotiate first with the executive branch, then with the legislative and then the judiciary, so on and so forth.

MOA – AD is non-renegotiable

Asked to comment on the statement “the GRP cannot sign the MOA-AD in its present form,” and so what would be the MILF option, what will happen next?

The recent incidents of clashes and hostilities, particularly in North Cotabato , Lanao and Saranggani, are direct result or impact of the aborted signing of the MOA – AD.

We hope the GRP will make up her mind. What we are expecting is for her to stand by, defend the already initialed MOA – AD, and eventually sign it. This is the obligation of the government to the MOA –AD.

The peace process is in a state of dilemma now. The possibility for the peace process to collapse is already there if the government would again renege on its commitment and veer away from the peace track.

The MILF is totally committed to pursue the peace process. But if the government would abandon it, then there are a lot of options available but continuation of armed struggle is given.

The peace process is part and parcel of the Bagnsamoro struggle to achieve the legitimate aspiration of the Bangsamoro people for freedom, homeland, identity and self-governance and in achieving peace, justice, unity and progress in Mindanao . If the peace process will not succeed then rest assured that the MILF is determined to continue the struggle until the Bangsamoro objective is achieve.

Sad incidents

What had happened in Lanao del Norte and North Cotabato are very unfortunate. The MILF expressed sadness to what had happened. We do feel that it should not have happened in the first place. The incidents were triggered by the frustrations and outraged of our commanders on the peace process in the wake of the aborted signing of the MOA – AD.

Thorough and impartial investigation within the framework of the peace process must be conducted on these cases.

But the problem is that the government had already launched military offensives against alleged perpetrators without giving enough space for the mechanisms of the peace process to take their due course in addressing the situation.

Worst, the Armed Forces of the Philippines is already conducting indiscriminate actions employing excessive force against the main MILF forces and not just the alleged perpetrators. This had complicated the situation even further. Now hundreds of thousands of people, Muslims and Christians were already displaced.

The MILF believes the situation can be resolved through the mechanisms and parameters of the peace process. Any problem that occurs between the government and the MILF must be addressed thought the peace process.

Arming the civilians

We are seriously concern about the reported government gambit and overtures to arm the civilians. Anybody within the structure of the government that holds firearm is no longer a civilian but a combatant.

We gathered unverified information that some of those civilians who got killed in the Lanao del Norte incidents were actually armed and involved in a gun battle with the MILF forces. The other civilians were caught in the crossfire and not murdered by the MILF. That’s why the Joint MILF – GRP ceasefire committees and International Monitoring Team (IMT) must conduct as soon as possible an investigation to what had happened so that the measures and actions to be taken up will be prudent and justified.

Needless to say, arming civilians will not contribute to the noble efforts in finding a just, comprehensive and principled solution to the conflict in Mindanao .  

Strict laws and regulations
 
As a revolutionary organization, the MILF has its own laws and regulations as well as strict policies. Attacking civilians, destroying properties and violating human rights are totally in violation of the MILF internal laws and policies. Whoever is guilty of violation will be dealt with accordingly. The MILF is not a terrorist organization but a liberation front with clear ideology and political agenda.

Opposition to the MOA – AD

We really do not know exactly the contentions to the opposition on the MOA – AD. We do not know which part or specific provisions of the document are being opposed.

If the opposition to it is purely on the basis that there was no enough consultations made then that is not much of concern because certainly there will be consultations with the people and even there will be necessary congressional actions and enactments and of course the conduct of the plebiscite wherein the document will be subjected to the people for final decision.

MOA-AD is just a framework agreement and not the final compact. But with all due respect, the media is also responsible to muddling the entire issue and in creating a very hostile situation especially on the ground and public discourse. There is minimal, if not, non at all positive write ups on the peace process and MOA – AD for the past weeks. We need to strike a balance and fairness in media reporting. There were so much inflammatory statements that only add more to injuries and fanning total break-up of the peace process. Sorry to say that the media apparently has become a propaganda outfit designed to scuttle the peace process wittingly or unwittingly in favor of selfish, unscrupulous, bigoted minds and interests.