KABACAN,
North Cotabato – A 13-point collective decision of the
Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) leadership was
issued here at the end of their two-day 101 General Meeting of their
leadership. Certified true and correct by their
top ranking official, a document entitled “MNLF Enlarged
Central Committee Declaration” is their call to all
peoples of the world, especially the Muslim Ummah, to
recognize the Bangsamoro people’s inalienable right to
national self-determination, reflective of the call of the
United Nations’ resolution on decolonization.
Ustaz
Murshi Ibrahim, the Secretary General of the MNLF Central
Committee, describes their grand assembly’s decision as
“historic and very much natural, given the antagonistic
political development unfolding nowadays in the South of
the Philippines, vis-à-vis, the MNLF.”
The
Declaration expresses their adherence “to the ideals
being championed by the United Nations and its Committee
of 24 on Decolonization, and we shall push more democratic
efforts to bring about a free and self-governing
Bangsamoro country pursuant to UN Resolution 1514 during
their 947th plenary meeting on December 14,
1960 calling for “The granting of independence to all
colonized countries and peoples of the world.”
In
a 17-page message written from his police detention
facility in Sta. Rosa, Laguna to the 101 General Meeting of Leadership,
Chairman Nur Misuari exhorted his officials and MNLF
generals to face the truth, the challenges and come up
with clear policy decision.
“It
is incumbent on the present General Meeting to come up
with a clear-cut definition of the ultimate political goal
of the MNLF and the Bangsamoro struggle so that our people
may not be groping in the dark anymore,” the
wisdom-loaded statement
of Chairman Misuari reverberates during the night session,
as read by his emissary from Manila. He further encouraged
the assembly: “The decision is for you to make and
decide. Allah has placed the future and destiny of the
Bangsamoro people and their posterity, as well as their
sacred homeland Mindanao and its islands, in your hands.
And, on top of that, the integrity and fate of Islam as
well.”
The
Assembly’s Declaration also
“calls upon the UN and the Committee of 24 on
Decolonization to send their fact-finding mission to the
Bangsamoro country to look extensively into the legitimate
struggle of the Bangsamoro people.” They also urge the
UN to invite Chairman Misuari, himself a UNESCO Peace
Awardee, to attend the Decolonization Committee
meetings/hearings.
They
also welcome the advent of another Fact-finding Mission or
Review Team from the 57 member-countries Organization of
the Islamic Conference to rightly assess the 1996 Peace
Agreement between the MNLF and the Government of the
Republic of the Philippines (GRP). And they further urge
this Mission to visit and confer with Chairman Misuari “so
as to elicit his official stand regarding the GRP-OIC-MNLF
Peace Process. And to the OIC Secretary General, the
Declaration states: “We call upon H.E. Dr. Abdelouahed
Belkeziz, the Secretary General of the Organization of the
Islamic Conference, and the OIC Ministerial Committee of
the Eight to respect the sovereign decision of the MNLF
leaders, and their right to choose the leaders they want—not
what Malacanang wants.”
The
MNLF top brass and military commanders strongly urge
Malacanang for the immediate release of their detained
leader. “We call upon the Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
government to unconditionally release the UNESCO Peace
Awardee and signatory to the 1996 Peace Agreement, H.E.
Prof. Nur Misuari, from illegal and unjust detention.”
This
Declaration, which also reaffirmed their solid trust,
confidence and loyalty to H.E. Prof. Nur Misuari as their
MNLF Central Committee Chairman, was signed by
twenty-eight (28) State chairmen of the MNLF State
Revolutionary Committees and by three-hundred fifty (350)
National Commanders and officers of the Bangsamoro Armed
Forces (BAF). More than a thousand representatives, said
Secretary General Ustaz Murshi, also attended the affair,
from various sectors of the Bangsamoro society, including
the Lumad.
Chairman
Misuari even expressed joy and enthusiasm, in his message,
for the presence of the Highlanders and Christian brothers
in this historic General Meeting.
Another
significant part of their Declaration is a call to the
media to adhere to journalistic fairness, cautioning them
not to mouth the propaganda spin of the combative
establishment. “We deplore the media propaganda and
demonization labeled against us and the MNLF, such as, “terrorists,”
“renegade group,” “breakaway faction,” etc. They
emphasized that they are the one and only genuine
mainstream MNLF that engages with the GRP, and with the
constructive participation of the OIC, in the on-going
peace process as a result of the 1996 Peace Agreement.#
