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By Angelo S. Samonte, Reporter
More than a decade after signing the peace
agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), government
said Sunday it will take more time to implement the pact.
“It will take time, but we are hopeful,”
said Jess Dureza, presidential adviser on the peace process,
referring to amendments to the agreement needed to implement it.
“There is a scheduled tripartite meeting this May, and we believe
several other constructive proposals will come out.”
He said the government panel brought out some of
its proposals during previous meetings with the MNLF and the
Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) but didn’t come out with
specific details.
The Philippine government, the MNLF and the
Organization have been working on a possible amendment on the 1996
peace accord after the former complained that the truce was not
fully implemented.
As this developed, hundreds of Muslims in Sulu
held a demonstration also on Sunday, calling for independence for
that island-province that was once the seat of power of the
Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo. (See related story A7.)
The former rebel group, whose leaders are from
Sulu, also said the autonomous region was not given enough power
despite the existence of the peace agreement.
Earlier on Saturday, the Organization of Islamic
Conference said the government and the former Muslim separatists are
making progress toward implementing a peace accord granting autonomy
to Filipino Muslims in the south.
The influential Muslim organization said it is
now counting on the government and the MNLF to come up with
proposals on amending the 1996 peace agreement, which ended decades
of fighting and led to the creation of an autonomous region for
Muslims.
The Organization, MNLF, and the Philippine
government representatives are expected to submit a report to the
Organization of Islamic Conference next month on possible amendments
for the autonomy to be fully realized.
Government and MNLF negotiators said they are
just finalizing the documents and will come up with a combined
report after the tripartite meeting.
The tripartite meeting is aimed at discussing
issues concerning the implementation of the Conference-mediated 1996
peace agreement.
Parties working on the agreement were supposed
to meet on January 14, but the Organization of Islamic Conference
failed to send its representative for unknown reasons.
The meeting was tentatively rescheduled on May
12 in Manila. Both the Philippine government and the MNLF agreed to
create a joint working group, a body composed of government and MNLF
representatives to look into the complaints of the former rebels.
The working group was created during the Jeddah
round of the tripartite meeting in November last year.
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