By Brian Lanciault
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia
MANILA, Philippines– Representatives from the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front on Saturday signed the final piece of the four annexes to the Framework Peace Agreement, completing a vital cornerstone to a more than decades-old peace process.
Representatives led by Presidential Peace Adviser Secretary Teresita Deles, government chief negotiator Miriam Coronel-Ferrer and her counterpart in the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Mohagher Iqbal, met late in the afternoon Saturday and affixed their signatures to a several page document, the annex on normalization and addendum on Bangsamoro waters. The resolution came at the end of four days of negotiation in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
“Today the government and the MILF jointly signed the annex on normalization, the last of the four Annexes to the GPH-MILF Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB), which was completed on 15 October 2012. This paves the way for the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB). This is indeed a long-awaited moment that is a gift to our people at the start of a new year of renewed hope and commitment,” Deles said.
Earlier, negotiators from both sides signed the annexes regarding transitional arrangements and modalities, revenue generation and wealth and power sharing.
“Long live peace,” those witnessing the signing of the landmark document during the 43 exploratory talks in Malaysia cheered. Video footage of the event was streamed live across the nation.
Malaysian facilitator Datu Abdul Gaafar Tengku said: “I am very proud to be part of this process. I’ve witnessed in 1986 the People Power and now this.”
Malaysia has played the role of a third party facilitator of the talks since 2004.
Iqbal said the signing of the normalization annex had been an emotional matter.
“All these documents that we had signed are important, but the annex on normalization and addendum on Bangsamoro waters is vital because it is the last of the four annexes that completes the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro signed in October 2012,” he said.
Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda, who was in Kuala Lumpur to witness the event, said in his twitter post immediately after the signing of the last annex: “After more than a year of hard work, the peace panel in a moment of joy!”
A substantial portion on the annex on normalization includes the decommissioning of weapons from members of the MILF.
Coronel, during a video streamed press briefing, said the decommissioning and demobilization will be carried out in a multi-phase process.
“It will be gradual,” she said.
The MILF boasts some 12,000 fighters and the normalization process would involve the “decommissioning” of the firearms used by the rebels. Provisions provide for the absorption of a number of them into the police force of the yet to be created Bangsamoro.
With the completion of the four annexes, Coronel said negotiators can now proceed to crafting the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) in order to complete the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro.
The BBL is set to be drafted by the Transition Commission which Iqbal also heads, but would also have to pass through a congressional vote, and would be subjected to a plebiscite in areas covered by the FAB.
The conflict in southern Philippines has cost the lives of an estimated 150,000 combatants and civilians over the last four decades.
For more information, please see:
The Australian– Philippines peace deal nears for Muslim south–26 January 2014
Gulf News– Philippines steps closer to Moro peace–25 January 2014
Inter Aksyon– Lacierda: Annex on Normalization signing is President Aquinoas defining moment–26 January 2014
The Wall Street Journal– Philippines, Rebel Group Step Closer to Peace–25 January 2014
