16 December 2013 - A Philippine Government delegation led by Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Rafael E. Seguis attended the recent 40th Session of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s Council of Foreign Ministers (OIC-CFM) in Conakry, Republic of Guinea, from December 9 to 11.
In his statement during the plenary session of the OIC Foreign Ministers meeting, Undersecretary Seguis informed the OIC member-states on recent developments on the peace processes in the southern Philippines. The Philippine Government has been engaged with two groups over the past years, resulting in a peace agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) led by Nur Misuari in 1996, and a Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed on October 15, 2012.
Undersecretary Seguis conveyed the good news that, a day before the meeting, the Philippine Government signed on December 08 with the MILF the Annex on Power Sharing, the third of four annexes to the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro. Undersecretary Seguis clarified that the Philippine Government is now just one step closer to the finalization and signing of a comprehensive peace agreement with the MILF.
During the OIC meeting, the Philippine Government requested OIC members to support the holding of the 5th Tripartite Review of the Implementation of the 1996 Final Peace Agreement between the Philippines and the MNLF and the Philippine Government’s efforts for the convergence of the GPH-MNLF peace processes with the auspices of the Framework on the Bangsamoro.
At the end of the meeting, the OIC member-states adopted a resolution on the question of Muslims in the southern Philippines that recognized “the peace efforts between the Government of the
Philippines and the MILF for reaching a comprehensive agreement that would help improvement of the situation of Muslims in Mindanao.”
The OIC resolution also expressed “concern over the incident that took place in Zamboanga City on 9 September which led to a fire fight between the Philippines government and the MNLF forces loyal to Nur Misuari”, referring to the incident that was started by the MNLF forces loyal to Misuari which caused the loss of innocent lives and property.
To facilitate the convergence of both agreements as requested by the Philippine Government, the OIC requested “the OIC Secretary General to continue his efforts to narrow the gap between the positions of the leaderships of the MNLF and the MILF to continue their joint coordination and work to achieve peace and development for the people of Bangsamoro Coordination Forum.”
At the sidelines of the Conakry meeting, the Philippine delegation met with the OIC Secretary-General Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu where the latter remarked that it was a “wrong move” for Nur Misuari to have resorted to violence in Zamboanga last September.
The Philippine Delegation also met with the Foreign Minister of Guinea, H.E. Louncery Fall, and other high-ranking officials of OIC member states attending the meeting. Most of them have expressed agreement to the convergence proposed by the Philippine Government of the achievements of both GPH-MNLF and GPH-MILF peace talks that would set a path for a coordinated implementation of both peace agreements for the benefit of the entire Bangsamoro people in the southern Philippines.
The Philippine delegation included Undersecretary Nabil A. Tan of the Office of the Executive Secretary; Undersecretary Jose I. Lorena of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP); Ambassador Alex Lamadrid, Philippine Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Non-resident Ambassador to the Republic of Guinea; and Mr. Zoilo A. Velasco, Principal Assistant at the Department of Foreign Affairs’ Office of the Undersecretary for Adminsitration.
Philippine Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Ezzedin Tago was originally part of the delegation but travelled instead to Sana’a to attend to the Filipino victims of the terrorist attack on the Yemeni Defense Ministry Complex. The incident last December 05 claimed the lives of seven (7) Filipinos and injured 11 Filipinos. END