Since ISIS-linked groups have increased their activities, the peace process between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front has come to a standstill ahead of the presidential elections
Peace talks between the Filipino government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has slowed down recently. Coming presidential election in May 2016 and ISIS-linked Abu Sayyaf group's attacks decelerates negotiations before the presidential election is scheduled on May 9, 2016. Filipino President Benigno Aquino III is barred from re-election, as the 1987 constitution allows a president to be elected once for a six-year term. The position of president and vice president are elected separately and the winning candidates may come from different political parties. The result of presidential election in May 2016, will indicate how the process to run. In August, the Philippine polling organization Social Weather Stations (SWS) published a report that 45 percent of Filipinos still prefer peaceful negotiations with MILF. Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. cited the SWS survey to argue that Filipinos still support peaceful negotiation with MILF, despite a 17-point decline in support for negotiations after the Mamasapano incident, from 62 percent in March 2014 to 45 percent in March 2015. Teresita Quintos Deles, presidential adviser on the peace process, called the results an "affirmation" of the need to continue the peace process. Despite provocations, MILF started to hand over weapons in June 2015 in order to show their commitment to the peace agreement.
The Moro people established armed resistance groups over the massacres and ethnic cleansing by the Filipino government in 1972. There were four main groups fighting the government in the Bangsamoro region. The first one, the Mindanao Independence Movement (MIM) was founded in 1968 and demanded autonomy, but in a short time the MIM was deactivated. Second, the Moro National Liberation Fromt (MNLF) was a political organization in the Philippines that was founded by Nur Misuari in 1969. The MNLF struggled against the Filipino government to achieve independence. There were peace talks and two signed agreements in 1976 and 1996. The MNLF renounced its claim of independence and now the group is weak and divided. The third, MILF, was founded by Salamat Hashim in 1977 and looked for autonomy. Over the course of time, MILF has become the main opposition power and currently the Filipino government is holding peace talks with the group. The last group is Abu Sayyaf, which is allegedly linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), which controls large swathes of Iraq and Syria. The radical group has carried out deadly bombings, kidnappings, assassinations, and extortion since 1991. Abu Sayyaf was condemned repeatedly by MNLF and MILF.
In September 2015, two Canadian tourists – John Ridsdel, 68, and Robert Hall, 50 – a Norwegian resort manager named Kjartan Sekkingstad, 56, and a Filipino woman were kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf from a popular resort island in the southern Philippines. Last week, former Italian Catholic missionary Rolando del Torchio was kidnapped by gunmen. Filipino forces have mounted a massive search for del Torchio. There has been no trace of the four. Police said that they have no information of who is behind the latest kidnappings, but Abu Sayyaf is suspected. In April 2014, Abu Sayyaf gunmen seized a German couple while they were sailing off the far south-western island of Palawan, a popular tourist destination. The German couple was released six months later, with Abu Sayyaf claiming it had received all of the $5.4 million it demanded in ransom.
The Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro was signed between the Filipino government and MILF on Oct. 15, 2012. In this context, the Third Party Monitoring Team (TPMT) was founded to observe the peace progress. The TPMT has five members of two local nongovernmental organizations, two international nongovernmental organizations and one independent person. The Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro (CAB) was signed between the government and MILF on March 28, 2014 in Manila. According to the agreement, MILF agreed to decommission its armed wing. In return, the government allowed establishing an autonomous Bangsamoro. But peace talks were interrupted with an unexpected clash in Mamasapano on Jan. 25, 2015. Clashes took place between the Philippines National Police, including special forces, a joint U.S. army special force, Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and MILF. In the clashes, 44 Special Action Force (SAF) members, 18 MILF members, five BIFF members and several civilians died. After the attack, a MILF spokesman accused the SAF squads of starting the fight, claiming that the group responded in self-defense, and proposed the continuation of the peace process. Also, the Turkish Foreign Ministry expressed concern over the incident and hoped that the incident would not affect the peace process in Mindanao. Hüseyin Oruç, vice president of the IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation, is one of the members of TPMT from Turkey. After the Mamasapano clash Oruç told Daily Sabah: "The process that came to a critical point was interrupted with such a ridiculous operation. One of the groups in SAF targeted Zulkifl-i Abdhir without informing the Filipino president. Zulkifl-i Abdhir was killed in the operation with the intelligence provided by the U.S. Then MILF was accused, unfortunately."
After the new autonomy deal was signed in 2014, MILF started to hand over weapons in June 2015 in order to show its commitment to the historic peace agreement. Seventy-five heavy weapons, including howitzers and rocket launchers, were handed over in the presence of the president and 11,000-strong group's leader al-Hajj Murad Ebrahim. Aquino, a reformist leader whose six-year term ends in 2016, said at the ceremony that the first phase of the decommissioning of the front was a big step, showing their sincerity toward building a lasting peace. The front's members showed their commitment by attending the symbolic ceremony with 145 fighters. "As I look at the faces of each of our 145 brothers here, I see 145 stories of struggle, of pain, of hopelessness and even of death, yet I also see 145 stories of hope and faith that indeed peace is near and that all the sacrifices have been worth it," Ebrahim said. Members of the TPMT, which included Turkish ambassador Haydar Berk and Oruç, attended the symbolic decommissioning ceremony in Mindanao. Representatives from the U.S. and EU also attended the ceremony. The front's normalization process has the three main components of security, socioeconomic development and transitional justice. As part of the peace deal, the Filipino government will provide a cash handout to former fighters for education, training and livelihood.
The Filipino government and MILF hope to end the 45-year conflict. Moro people have long suffered from human rights abuses. About 120,000 people have been killed while some 2 million have become refugees. About 200,000 homes, 535 mosques and 200 schools were destroyed by the Filipino army. Moro people have been deprived of education as result of government policies.
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