Background

The lost of almost 80 percent of ancestral land national homeland or territory and political birth right for independence, not to mention the loss of more than 200,000 precious lives of innocent hapless civilians and uprooting of a million people from their. homeland for an uncertain autonomy is not an ordinary sacrifice in the kaleidoscope of history of mankind.

Unbelievably, above occurred on the. Bangsamoro people. It happened when the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) being the sole and legitimate representative of the Bangsamoro people with the active participation of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), fell to the trap of the official commitment of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) to grant the Bangsamoro people genuine and meaningful political autonomy as contained and provided for in the two (2) successive agreements; the 1976 Tripoli Agreement and the so called 1996 Final Peace Agreement

The unthinkability of this act can still be further emphasized when the facts are taken into account that the Moros were dragged into it when they almost secured victory, as the tide of war was turning already in their favor at the time when the Tripoli Agreement was signed thirty years ago and after making, great sacrifices — loss of hundreds of thousands of lives, destruction to properties, nearly a million rendered homeless and refugees.

Almost thirty years after the signing of the Tripoli Agreement in 1976, and a decade after the signing of the Peace Agreement of 1996, the GRP has not satisfactorily and fully implemented her international binding commitments. Based on GRP's latest report to the OIC, the GRP cannot and does not categorically claim full implementation of the same. (See Annex-A, par.3, p.1).

It is the belief of the MNLF, and hopefully the OIC and other stakeholders share this belief, that, had the PA1996 been satisfactorily and fully implemented there would have been relative peace and development in war-ravaged Mindanao. A cursory glance at the government prepared statistics, without booking the stark reality obtaining in the ground,

reveals that the five (5) provinces of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao are still the most depressed and poorest provinces in the entire country. All economic indicators and all human resource development index like literacy rate, mortality rate, and life expectancy point to the same fact. The PA1996 has not made, therefore, any improvement and impact in the socio-economic life of the Bangsamoro people. It is as if that no peace agreement took place and happened at all.

As we wrote this report, renewed armed violence and hostilities initiated by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) against the soldiers of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) are flaring up in the Bangsamoro Homeland, particularly in its southern part, the Sulu region. This has been fiercely raging without let up days starting Wednesday, April 11, 2007. In the pretext, as always of running after the Abu Sayyaf Group, and to cozy up to the world the Philippines' fight against terrorism, these Filipino troops attacked the MNLF Main Headquarter in Marang, Buansa,Municipality of Indanan,Sulu, South of Philippines.

Prior to this attack, the AFP has made previous. attack on the same place on February 25, 2007, where the AFP incurred six casualties and sixteen injured. The AFP also had mercilessly massacred a- minor child aged 14 in Sitio Panglima Mammah, Indanan, Sulu, a few kilometers away from the MNLF Main Headquarter in Marang. In January 18, 2007, the AFP had also massacred nine (9) Moros in Sitio Tandu-Batu, Barangay Timpook, Patikul, Sulu.

Marang Complex is where Cmdr. Khaid Ajibun, the Chairman of the Lupah Sug (SULU) State Revolutionary Committee of the MNLF, holding his office. As a State Revolutionary Chairman in that area, he, together with other military commanders in the ground defended the integrity of our great Homeland and lives of our Bangsa Moro people and our nation.

Today, Chairman Khaid Ajibun and Ustaz Khabier Malik, the chief commander of the MNLF Task Force Jabal Uhud, under the jurisdiction of the State Command of Chairman Agibon, are being identified by the Armed Forces of the Philippines as their targets of hot pursuit and massive air, land and sea operations. And with an additional One Million Pesos (P1,000,000.00) bounty for the head of the latter.

With 8,000 Filipino troops, to include the Army, Scout Rangers, Philippine National Police and Marines already in the ground, Malacanang announced that another four (4) battalions of reinforcements would be airlifted to Sulu. No less than the highest official of the land who. spoke of crushing to pieces the MNLF. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has ordered the AFP to go after the group of Malik, and crush them said GRP official and media report.

Aside from AFP chief of staff General Hermogenes Esperon, Jr, who had been ordered by his Commander-in-Chief President Arroyo to go after the MNLF, a coterie of high ranking hawkish generals of the military establishment are also assembled to tactically direct their operations. This includes Lt. Gen. Eugenio Cedo, the chief of the Western Mindanao Command (WesMinCom), Maj. Gen. Ruben Rafael, chief of Task Force Comet and Brig. Gen. Ruperto Pabusan, chief of the AFP Joint Special Operations Task Force in Sulu.

National dailies in the country report that the AFP had been dropping 250 lbs. bombs and fired rockets in Camp Bitanag, in Panamao,, the Headquarters of Ustaz Khabier Malik and lately, as of April 25, 2007, pulverized the MNLF Headquarters of Khaid Ajibon said General Hermogenes Esperon, Jr.

Reports of casualties, though conflicting, are soaring. The MNLF, up to this date, suffered 17 martyrs and27 others injured. As to the AFP, even in their camp in Tayungan, Panamao alone, more than thirty were reported dead, and more than fifty others wounded, contrary to what their AFP spokesman said. And at dawn of Sunday, April 15, three (3) six-by-six trucks loaded with AFP troopers belonging to Marines were wiped out by,the MNLF. In' short, the casualties of the AFP and the marines are rating to 10x to that of the MNLF.

After six days of intense fighting, it's the civilians, of course the populace, who suffer most. Report from the local Department of Social Welfare and Development office in downtown Jolo, put the, displaced persons at 70,000. All these fled from the six affected municipalities -Panamao, Luuk, Kalinggalan Kaluang, Talipao, Indanan, and Parang.

The Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), His Excellency Prof. Ikmeliddin Ihsanoglu appealed to the GRP for a cease-fire repeatedly - on April 11,15 and 17, 2007 - and also the Special Adviser to the OIC Secretary General Ambassador Seyyid Kassem Al-Masry on April 24, 2007 but the GRP, in a language devoid of diplomatic decorum, has flatly rejected the appeals.

The resumption of recent hostilities is attributable to the treacherous machination and scenario-making of AFP generals in order create justification for their destructive design for the MNLF and Bangsa Moro people. One good example of this is the kidnapping and the heinous beheading of the seven (7) workers of the Sulu Governor Benjamin Loong by the suspected Abu Sayyaf on April 19, 2007. The AFP initially attributed the beheading to Ustaz Habier Malik, but the people could not believe this blatant lie or attribution since the site of the beheading, West of Sulu, is far away from the location of Ustaz Habier Malik which is East of Sulu. Then the AFP cooked another lie by attributing the same incident to Khaid Ajibon. The fact of the matter is that it is the AFP in collusion with the Abu Sayyaf that instigated the heinous incident. The whole scenario is a tactic of the AFP to implicate and link the MNLF to terrorism.

Unfortunate series of event like this continually recurring since the beginning of the new millennium graphically illustrates the ugly facade of the Final Peace Agreement. Defaced almost beyond recognition, it is easily quantifiable for the fatal violations it suffers at the hands of the Manila government rather than its spiritless implementation and faithful observance. Their litany of major violations has been endless, year-end and year-out.

To cite some of them:

In February this year just after the crisis situation emanating from the controversial "extended visit" of Marine Brig. Gen. Benjamin Dolorfino, the chief of the Metro Manila National Capital Region Command of the AFP, OPAPP deputy chief Ramon Santos, four colonels and. fifteen others to the Camp Jabal Uhud in Panamao, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo acknowledged that there are still deficiencies, provisions and strands of the Peace Treaty that need to be fast-tracked. Through her Presidential Spokesman, Secretary Ignacio Bunye, the president said that they are committed to fully implement the accord, and had instructed her line agencies to do all the "doables."

Bunye said: "We acknowledge that there are outstanding issues with the MNLF that need to be! resolved under the principles of continuity and comprehensiveness of the peace process; and all departments and agencies are prepared to do their share to make peace work for the greater interest of the nation."

The MNLF has been open in voicing out its persistent calls that the Peace Agreement needs to be revisited, assessed, and evaluated for it to be acceptable to all the stakeholders, especially the MNLF and the Bangsamoro people. And that the legitimate authorities, the high contracting parties to the treaty, such as the MNLF, the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the Organization of the Islamic Conference, together as a Tripartite body, must once again sit down and talk.

The schedule for this Tripartite Meeting to be held in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been postponed .since July last year for around seven (7) times. During the one-week OIC High Level Fact-finding Mission to the Philippines last May 17-24, 2006, Ambassador Seyyid Kassem Al-Masry, the Head of the Mission, told the parties to the agreement of the July schedule of the Tripartite. He came back to Manila this March 7-9, of this year, and had arranged that the meeting is reset to second week of July 2007. That is after the national elections in the country. And that the goal of the meeting, among others, would be: "The Review of the Implementation of the 1996 Peace Agreement between the GRP and the MNLF; Assessment of Progress Thereon, and identification of Obstacles to the Fall Implementation of the Peace Agreement."

To the MNLF leadership. under the chairmanship of His Excellency Prof. Nur Misuari, the Tripartite Meeting, critically necessary as it is, has been long overdue. The last Tripartite meeting among signatory parties to the Peace Agreement was held at the Indonesian Embassy in Makati City, Metro Manila, Philippines almost eight years ago, to be exact, on October 1, 1999.

Our leader, H.E. Chairman Nur Misuari has consistently voiced out his concern for the high parties to talk so that peace, a genuine, lasting and comprehensive one, can be ensured. In Davao City last September 2, 2006, when he was granted by the Makati Court few hours travel furlough from his House detention to attend the Manila government-sponsored 10th anniversary celebration of the Peace Agreement, he told the assembly that there is a need to "exhume" the agreement.

Today, in the midst of fighting and exchanges of gunfire between our Mujahedin soldiers and that of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and despite the rejection of the Philippine government and its military authorities of the OIC Secretary General's calls for cessation of hostilities, the more the need for the assessment of the Peace Agreement is becoming necessary. We maintain, as in the past, that the essential substance in letters and spirit rit of the accord remain to be implemented. And such implementation must be multilateral, meaning, not just the Manila government to do it. But it must, as a rule, include the MNLF and the OIC as its peace-making, peace-building and developmental partners.

Additionally, as could be gleaned below, here lies the deficiencies, loopholes and inequities.

The 5-Basic Elements of Phase II:

GRP Bid for OIC Observer Status:

After spilling the blood of more than 200,000 lives of the Bangsamoro people, desecrating and tinkering with the Tripoli Agreement, the GRP has the temerity to apply for OIC observer status.

The MNLF recognizes that the OIC has the sole prerogative in the matter of the admission of any organization and state to its fold. But the application and the subsequent admission of the GRP as an OIC observer status has an adverse consequence to the MNLF and the Bangsamoro people for the following reasons:

Summary

For the past ten years since September 1996 up to the present, we maintain that substantially the political, military and economic components of the Final Peace Agreement remain to be implemented. And in this implementation, the MNLF and the OIC must be involved—and must be the peace partners.

Recommendations

May we respectfully reiterate our recommendations, which we have submitted previously, to wit:

Expedite the release of the MNLF Chairman His Excellency, Chairman Prof. Nur Misuari;

Immediately convene the Tripartite Meeting among signatory parties to the Peace Agreement, namely, the MNLF, the GRP and the OIC, and with H.E. Chairman Nur Misuari in attendance;

Upgrade the Observer Status of the Bangsamoro being represented by the MNLF at the OIC to full fledged membership;

Condemn the on-going terroristic acts and the violations of the Peace Agreement being perpetrated by the GRP its military hawks against the MNLF, the sole and the legitimate representative of the Bangsamoro People, South Philippines.

Create a Joint Team among the OIC member states to monitor the implementation of the Peace Agreement and the Military Cessation of hostilities.

Kindly initiate and enjoin all other OIC countries for a Fund Drive Humanitarian Assistance Program to the Bangsamoro people through their sole and legitimate representative, the MNLF, consonant with the yearly resolutions of the ICFM and that of the Summits of Muslim Heads of State and government.