FORMER BASES operated by the secessionist Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) have been declared “peace zones” ready to accept agriculture investments from Muslim countries, according to an MNLF leader who is also a member of the Bangsamoro government.
“Since there is peace now in these areas, we are optimistic that investors from member-countries of the OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation) will soon come in to invest in viable ventures,” MNLF Central Committee Chair Muslimin G. Sema said on Friday following a meeting with Acting Presidential Peace Adviser Isidro L. Purisima.
Mr. Sema, the labor minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), said the former camps are suitable for large-scale propagation of corn, soybeans, or Cavendish bananas for export.
MNLF has blocs in the region’s provinces in mainland Mindanao as well as the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi. The “peace zones” have been de-militarized and have been set up to become agricultural development sites.
The OIC, a global bloc of Muslim countries that includes petroleum-exporting states in the Middle East and North Africa, helped broker the Philippine government’s separate peace agreements with the MNLF and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
At the meeting, capped off by an iftar or the first meal after a day-long Ramadhan fast, Mr. Sema reaffirmed the MNLF’s commitment to supporting the peace process and economic development programs in the Bangsamoro region, with governance led by the MILF.
“The Moro issue in Mindanao is best addressed via diplomatic and political interventions. We cherish our final peace agreement with the National Government,” Mr. Sema said.
The MNLF and the National Government forged on Sept. 2, 1996 a final peace agreement that ended the group’s more than two decades of secessionist activities in provinces that now comprise BARMM.
The MILF, on the other hand, has two compacts with Malacañang, the 2012 Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro and the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro.
The two agreements came after 22 years of government-MILF peace talks that paved the way for the creation of BARMM in 2019, replacing the then 29-year-old Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Former MILF camps are also in the process of transformation via agricultural and non-agricultural livelihood training for inhabitants, and improving access to basic services and social infrastructure.
The MNLF has representatives in the 80-seat MILF-led BARMM parliament. — John M. Unson
