OIC mulls review of Philippine bid for observer status

Manila: The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation has shown interest in reviewing the Philippines’ long-submitted bid for observer status, after its member countries brokered Manila’s peace initiatives with two Filipino-Muslim rebel groups.

“OIC Secretary-General Iyad Ameen Madani told Philippine government officials that there is renewed interest in the OIC to revisit the Philippines’ bid for an observer status this year,” a statement from the Philippine foreign affairs department released on Wednesday said.

Madani also met with key leaders of the 47-year-old Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the 37-year old Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Davao City during his visit in the Philippines from April 17 to 20, the statement said.

OIC member countries such as Indonesia and Libya helped forge the pro-autonomy peace settlement reached between the Philippine government and the MNLF in 1996. Muammar Gaddafi, the former strongman of Libya, an OIC member country, helped the forging of the first pro-autonomy political settlement of the Philippine government and the MNLF in Tripoli in 1976.

Malaysia, also an OIC member state, brokered the pro-autonomy peace settlement between the Philippine government and the MILF in 2014. Talks were held for 14 years starting in 1997.

The MNLF, a non-state entity, which received OIC observer status in 1977 has been blocking the Philippines’ request for OIC observer status, sources said.

The Philippine government has been pursuing OIC observer status since 2003.

However, other OIC member countries opposed the Philippines bid for OIC observer status, saying there had been no significant improvements in the lives of Filipino-Muslims in Mindanao and no full implementation of the two peace settlements.

The Philippine government is an illegitimate representative of Muslim Filipinos and has yet to achieve trust of OIC member states, they argued.

In contrast, the OIC has granted observer status to countries with minor Muslim communities such as Russia in 2005; and Thailand in the late 1990s.

The OIC has also given observer status to non-state entities such as the Parliamentary Union of the OIC Member states and the Islamic Conference Youth Forum for Dialogue and Cooperation, and to international organisations such as the League of Arab States, United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, African Union, and Economic Cooperation Organisations in 1995.

The OIC was established with 57 member countries in 1969.