By Roy Ramos

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines

 The Philippine government has released a press statement saying it sees bright prospects in the unification of two Muslim rebel groups that have been fighting for autonomy in the Philippines south.

Two days after the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) formally activated a coordination forum that will help them work toward peace in the region, government peace advisor Teresita Quintos Deles said Thursday, "We look forward to the participation of both the MILF and MNLF in the establishment of the Bangsamoro."

According to a meeting report signed by MNLF and MILF representatives and Syed El-Masry, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) special envoy to the southern Philippines, the forum shall serve as the mechanism for the rebel groups to “coordinate their movements toward achieving the aspiration of the Bangsamoro (Moro) people towards just and lasting peace, and peaceful resolution of their problems.”

The meeting report said both parties reiterated their “firm belief that unity is indispensable to the success of the Bangsamoro struggle and that there are no basic differences between their fronts as both are seeking to achieve peace, justice and fair solution to the problem facing the Bangsamoro people.”

The Bangsamoro Coordinating Forum was organized last June by the OIC,  a bloc of more than 50 Muslim states, as a venue for cooperation between the MNLF and the MILF in pushing the peace process in Mindanao -- the second largest and southernmost major island in the Philippines -- forward after a March 27 government-MILF peace deal that brought to a close 17 years of negotiations and ended a decades-old armed.

The MILF broke away from the MNLF in 1977 due to political differences and diverse positions on how to solve the decades-old Moro issue.

Whereas some factions of the MNLF, whose members are scattered in more than 20 “revolutionary states” in Mindanao, are not hostile to the MILF, the MNLF faction led by Nur Misuari is opposed to government - MILF efforts to establish a regional government through the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law currently being deliberated by Congress.

In September 2013, Misuari's group laid siege to the predominantly Christian city of Zamboanga to the March 27 deal, which he claimed is a betrayal of a 1996 OIC-brokered agreement, has left his organization shortchanged, and granted Muslims in the region lesser autonomy.

There is a standing warrant for his arrest on charges of rebellion, violation of international humanitarian law, genocide and other crimes against humanity after the siege left 300 people dead and thousands displaced.

The still unfinished review of the now 17-year peace accord, which started in 2007, was plagued by misunderstandings by both sides on the implementation of some of sensitive provisions.

Deles said Thursday the forum’s launch “is a positive and very welcome development especially at this juncture of the peace process when the Bangsamoro Basic Law is being deliberated in Congress.”

“We are talking of the same territory and the same people, as such it is good to know that the MILF and MNLF have agreed to consolidate their efforts for peace and development so that all of these can be integrated in the [law]," the statement added.

The forum, which will be composed of ten members each from the MILF and MNLF, is expected to meet every three months, with the first meeting scheduled for October 26-27.

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