The leaders of the Philippines’ biggest Muslim rebel group arrived in Manila yesterday for a historic visit aimed at ending one of Asia’s longest and deadliest insurgencies.
Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chairman Murad Ebrahim and other senior rebel figures emerged from their remote bases in the country’s south to oversee the signing of an accord today that outlines a roadmap for peace by 2016.
The accord, announced by Philippine President Benigno Aquino III a week ago, has won applause from foreign governments and the UN as a rare chance to end a rebellion that has killed an estimated 150,000 people since the 1970s.
However, rank-and-file soldiers of the 12,000-strong MILF, as well as the group’s leaders and independent security analysts, have warned that many obstacles could still derail the peace process.
Ebrahim, an aging warrior in his 60s who has spent most of his life in the southern Philippine region of Mindanao, is making his first official trip as MILF leader to Manila.
The signing is due to be held at the presidential palace, so Ebrahim would also become the first MILF leader to get inside the country’s inner sanctum of power.
“We feel honored to be welcomed in Manila, but I must stress this is just the beginning of the peace journey,” Ebrahim’s deputy for political affairs, Ghazali Jaafar, told reporters.
Jaafar and other senior MILF officials arrived on a chartered plane in the Philippine capital yesterday afternoon. Potentially because of the sensitivities of the visit and security concerns, Ebrahim arrived in secret on a separate plane.
Aquino’s chief adviser on the peace process, Teresita Deles, said yesterday evening that Ebrahim had arrived, but neither she nor the MILF gave any further details.
In a statement shortly after Aquino’s announcement on the “framework agreement” that capped 15 years of MILF negotiation efforts, Ebrahim said the deal “lays down the firm foundations of a just and enduring peace formula.”
“The forging of the framework agreement, however, does not mean the end of the struggle, for it ushers a new and more challenging stage,” he said.
Muslim rebel groups have been fighting for full independence or autonomy for four decades in Mindanao, which they consider their ancestral homeland from before Spanish Christians colonized the country in the 1500s.
The fighting has mired large parts of resource-rich Mindanao in poverty, and led to the proliferation of unlicensed guns and political warlords who battle over fiefdoms.
The between 4 million and 9 million Muslims are now a minority on Mindanao after years of Catholic immigration, but they insist they should be allowed to govern on their own and control Mindanao, which also has fertile farming lands.
The MILF is the biggest and most important remaining rebel group, after the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) signed a peace pact with the government in 1996.
The peace deal with the MNLF led to the creation of an autonomous region that Aquino said was a “failed experiment” that led to corruption and even more poverty.
Beijing’s continued provocations in the Taiwan Strait reveal its intention to unilaterally change the “status quo” in the area, the US Department of State said on Saturday, calling for a peaceful resolution to cross-strait issues. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) reported that four China Coast Guard patrol vessels entered restricted and prohibited waters near Kinmen County on Friday and again on Saturday. A State Department spokesperson said that Washington was aware of the incidents, and urged all parties to exercise restraint and refrain from unilaterally changing the “status quo.” “Maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is in line with our [the
EXTENDED RANGE: Hsiung Sheng missiles, 100 of which might be deployed by the end of the year, could reach Chinese command posts and airport runways, a source said A NT$16.9 billion (US$534.93 million) project to upgrade the military’s missile defense systems would be completed this year, allowing the deployment of at least 100 long-range Hsiung Sheng missiles and providing more deterrence against China, military sources said on Saturday. Hsiung Sheng missiles are an extended-range version of the Hsiung Feng IIE (HF-2E) surface-to-surface cruise missile, and are believed to have a range of up to 1,200km, which would allow them to hit targets well inside China. They went into mass production in 2022, the sources said. The project is part of a special budget for the Ministry of National Defense aimed at
READY TO WORK: Taiwan is eager to cooperate and is hopeful that like-minded states will continue to advocate for its inclusion in regional organizations, Lai said Maintaining the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, and peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region must be a top priority, president-elect William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday after meeting with a delegation of US academics. Leaders of the G7, US President Joe Biden and other international heads of state have voiced concerns about the situation in the Strait, as stability in the region is necessary for a safe, peaceful and prosperous world, Lai said. The vice president, who is to be inaugurated in May, welcomed the delegation and thanked them for their support for Taiwan and issues concerning the Strait. The international community
COOPERATION: Two crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank off Kinmen were rescued, two were found dead and another two were still missing at press time The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) was yesterday working with Chinese rescuers to find two missing crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank southwest of Kinmen County yesterday, killing two crew. The joint operation managed to rescue two of the boat’s six crewmembers, but two were already dead when they were pulled from the water, the agency said in a statement. Rescuers are still searching for two others from the Min Long Yu 61222, a boat registered in China’s Fujian Province that capsized and sank 1.03 nautical miles (1.9km) southwest of Dongding Island (東碇), it added. CGA Director-General Chou Mei-wu (周美伍) told a