A government negotiator said Thursday a decision by Moro insurgents to abandon their separatist goal in favor of the creation of a ‘sub-state' could pave way for lasting peace in the troubled south. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has said it is abandoning its goal to create an independent Bangsamoro state in Mindanao in favor of creating a ‘sub-state.' “We welcome the announcement of the MILF that it is no longer demanding an independent state,” said Marvic Leonen, head of the state negotiating panel for Mindanao peace talks. Leonen said the shift “will definitely pave the way to finding an understanding for a politically feasible arrangement that maintains the territorial integrity and the fundamental premise of people's sovereignty in one Republic.” The MILF, the largest and most influential Moro independence-movement in the south, has been holding peace negotiations with the government since 2001. The negotiations had collapsed several times but the two sides have agree lately to revive the peace talks after President Benigno Aquino III was voted to the presidency in the May 10 elections. Leonen said the Aquino government would exert its best efforts to help bring lasting peace in Mindanao, where armed confrontations have been raging for nearly four decades, displacing and killing hundreds of thousands of people.“We will listen to their proposals and are willing to work with them to find a just, comprehensive and lasting peace,” said Leonen. MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal said his organization has decided to give up efforts for the creation of a Bangsamoro state that includes the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) plus 712 villages in five provinces including Palawan, which is part of Luzon. The state would be called Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE). In 2008, the government of then president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo almost completed the talks with the MILF after both sides signed agreed documents but the Supreme Court declared the agreement as unconstitutional. The agreement was similar to the new sub-state proposal but the sub-states have powers that would make them almost independent from the central government. The ruling led to the collapse of the peace negotiations, prompting rogue MILF leaders to launch new offensives in the region. The government then withdrew its support for the agreement, dismantled its peace panel, demanded disarmament and launched a series of counter-offensives. The new war of attrition killed about 300 people, including at least 104 civilians. and displaced about 610,000 residents. In a statement, Iqbal said under its new proposal, the MILF would recognize the power of the “central government” as long as the power of the sub-state for the Bangsamoro people would be defined. He said the sub-state would exercise all government functions except those on national defense, foreign affairs, currency, and postal services, which would all fall under the control of the central government. He also said a Moro sub-state would not have soldiers but only internal security forces. In his first State of the Nation Address last July, Aquino offered the olive branch to the insurgents and invited the MILF to go back to the negotiating table after the Ramadan. Malaysian has been brokering the peace talks between the MILF and the government since the late 1990s.
