By Recto Mercene
THE government on Monday asked for the completion of the Tripartite Review Process (TRP) it has been conducting for the past eight years with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) under the auspices of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Secretary Teresita Quintos Deles said at the opening of the two-day meeting “it is high time for the TRP—with the government and the Bangsamoro fronts in full and active partnership—to conclude the review and proceed to the implementation of the results.”
She asked the representatives “to do justice to the long struggle of the Bangsamoro.”
The OIC, which brokered the 1996 peace accord between the government and the MNLF, was asked to make its assessment of the progress made, as well as obstacles facing its full implementation with a particular focus on Phase II in 2006.
At least four tripartite meetings and two ad-hoc high-level group meetings were conducted since the review process started in 2006.
Since then, the process has resulted to several agreements, including the 42 consensus points, intended to be the amendatory provisions for Republic Act 9054, before they were integrated into the proposed Bangsamoro basic law (BBL). The fifth tripartite review process was initially scheduled on September 16, 2013. However, it was suspended by the OIC following the three-week Zamboanga siege, when rogue members of the MNLF attacked the southern port city.
The ongoing meeting is set to tackle the two remaining issues related to the comanagement of minerals and natural resources and the full convergence of the final peace agreement (FPA) with the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) under the broad framework of the BBL.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed the CAB on March 27, 2014, after 17 years of negotiations, to the wide acclaim of the international community that has been extending financial and other assistance to Mindanao peace programs.
In 2014 the OIC set up the Bangsamoro Coordination Forum (BCF) to unify the two fronts for the specific integration of the FPA with the BBL. MNLF factions are represented in the BCF through a so-called Jeddah formula.
“A review is time-bound. A never-ending review means that agreements will never be implemented. It will mean endlessly looking backward instead of moving forward,” Deles said.
“I am confident that the parties, the OIC, the government, and the MNLF, are ready to take all necessary actions, to surmount narrow, rigid interests and enter a new era of collaboration for lasting peace and progress,” she added.
The MNLF, through the trio of peace advocates, would be given equitable representation in the Bangsamoro Transition Authority, as well as encourage them to field candidates for the elections in the Bangsamoro region.
A monitoring committee will also be formed to supervise the implementation of all TRP agreements and initiatives.
Deles thanked OIC Secretary-General Iyad bin Amin Madani for personally taking steps to push the TRP and the two fronts’ unification by making an unprecedented trip to the Philippines last year.
During his visit, Madani met with the MNLF and MILF leaders in Davao City and held personal meetings with President Aquino and the leaders of Congress for the enactment of the BBL bill into law.
Deles also underscored the strategic implications of the completion of the TRP to the wider national and regional security.
“The OIC is bending over and exerting extraordinary efforts to make this review process a way forward, another workable political paradigm for the world’s Ummah in the search for communal harmony and balance, an ideal to which we all also firmly aspire and commit to relentlessly pursue.”
“With the completion of the review process, Mindanao stands on the threshold to open a new order of peace at a time when the entire global system faces huge, hard challenges, especially in Asia and the Middle East,” Deles added.
Her sentiment was echoed by Madani, who said the OIC “is very concerned” with the status of the Bangsamoro peace process, and is doing its best to help “bridge” the gaps to achieve lasting peace in Mindanao, and encouraged the international community, especially the ones in the Asian region, to continue doing what they can in helping the process.
Deles said the review process is ready to proceed to the implementation phase. “Stepping up the level of convergence of the Bangsamoro fronts with the implementation of 42 consensus points of the review process and the operationalization of the Bangsamoro Development Assistance Fund and the monitoring committee will draw forth more enduring, longer-term international support for the cause of Bangsamoro self-determination,” she said.
“We must view our present and immediate actions through the lens of such essentially long view.” This convergence will vindicate and validate all the truths and wisdom in the 1996 Final Peace Agreement as complemented and improved by the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro, and also, therefore, do justice to the long struggle of the Bangsamoro,” she added. “We look forward to reach a conclusion of the review process with our esteemed counterparts in the MNLF, under the wise guidance and firm auspices of the OIC,” Deles said.
The Philippine delegation is composed of National Commission on Muslim Filipinos Secretary Yasmin Busran-Lao; Department of Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Rafael Seguis; Undersecretary Nabil Tan of the Office of the Executive Secretary; Undersecretary Zabedin Azis of the Department of Justice; Undersecretary Jose Lorena of the Office of Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process; Deputy-Director General Zenonida Brosas of the National Security Council; Brig. Gen. Buenaventura Pascual of the Peace Process Office of the Armed Forces of the Philippines; lawyer Anna Tarhata Basman, head of the Legal Team of the GPH Peace Negotiating Panel for talks with the MILF; and Regional Governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Mujiv Hataman and Deputy Regional Gov. Yusop Jukiri.
Image credits: AP/Bullit Marquez