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Manila scraps agreement with Muslim rebels

Alvin Cuntu, left, is accompanied by 31 members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front who surrendered to the military as they were presented to the media yesterday at a military camp in Iligan City in southern Philippines. The group surrendered after refusing orders to kill civilians. PHOTO: AP

The Philippine government has scrapped its controversial peace deal with the country’s Muslim minority after two weeks of deadly clashes in the south, the presidential palace said yesterday.

The pact signed last month between leaders of the mostly Christian country and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) had called for a Muslim homeland to be established on the revolt-hit southern Mindanao.

“Cancelation of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain [MOA-AD] is a painful step,” presidential spokeswoman Lorelei Fajardo said, referring to the official name of the peace agreement.

Fajardo said President Gloria Arroyo was “sensitive” to the objections of local Christian leaders, who are opposed to the agreement and have taken to the streets, branding it a “sellout.”

“The president is committed to peace,” Fajardo told journalists. “The administration is sensitive to public sentiments and the president is also committed to upholding the constitution.”

“In doing so she will seek a new agreement within the boundaries of the law set within the constitution,” she said. “The president will not allow adventurism by MILF forces to pressure government to sign any agreement, even if it is for peace.”

On Aug. 4, the Philippine Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order against the agreement following protests by several politicians who saw it as “unconstitutional.”

Two rebel MILF commanders have since taken up arms, in defiance of the group’s leadership, and killed Christian civilians and looted and burned homes and farms. More than 100,000 people have been made homeless as a result of the fighting.

The rebel MILF commanders have linked their attacks to the Supreme Court’s suspension, saying that the government had designed the agreement to fail.

Described as a “landmark deal,” the proposed MOA-AD would have paved the way for a “comprehensive compact” to end 40 years of bloodshed that has left more than 120,000 people dead and tens of thousands displaced.

The pact had called for the establishment of what amounted to a state within a state with its own “basic law,” police and internal security force.

The region would have been allowed to run its own banking and finance system, civil service, education and legislative and electoral institutions.

It would also have been given full authority to develop and dispose of minerals and other natural resources within its territory.
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