World | Philippines
Deal on Muslim area 'inked before top court ruling'
The Philippine government and a major separatist Muslim group signed an agreement to enlarge an existing autonomous area for Filipino-Muslims by July end, a week before the Supreme Court prevented its formal signing in Malaysia, a rebel spokesman has said.
- By Barbara Mae Dacanay, Bureau Chief
- Published: 00:07 August 7, 2008
Manila: The Philippine government and a major separatist Muslim group signed an agreement to enlarge an existing autonomous area for Filipino-Muslims by July end, a week before the Supreme Court prevented its formal signing in Malaysia, a rebel spokesman has said.
"We initialled the text of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral (MoA-AD) domain on July 27, 2008. The pact is a done deal. It is binding on the contracting parties who are obliged to refrain from acts that would defeat the object and purpose of their agreement," Mohagher Iqbal, information chair of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) told Luwaran, the MILF's website. "The signing was done with a credible third party witness, the Malaysian government as facilitator of the talks since 2001," said Iqbal.
Secretary Rodolfo Garcia, the Philippine government's chief peace negotiator, and Secretary Hermogenes Esperon of the Office of the Presidential Assistant on the Peace Process (OPAPP) also signed the document for the government, said Iqbal. He said he signed for the MILF, and Datuk Othman bin Abdulrazak, the talk's chief peace facilitator, signed for the Malaysian government, the principal peace broker.
"It is the administration of President Gloria Arroyo which was shamed in the eyes of the international community [because of the Supreme Court's decision to halt the formal signing of the agreement]," said Iqbal.
'Not a setback'
"This is not even a setback to the MILF. We are on the upper hand especially in the battle for moral ascendancy," he said.
US ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney and Sayed Al Masry, adviser to the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) Secretary General and special envoy for peace process in Southern Philippines were some of the foreign dignitaries who went to Malaysia to witness the formal signing of the agreement on Filipino-Muslims' ancestral domain in Mindanao.
Kenney was quoted as saying, "Respecting the democratic process [in the Philippines] is never a cause for embarrassment."
Meanwhile, Nur Misuari, founder of the Moro National Liberation Front, which had forged a pro-autonomy peace settlement with the Philippine government in 1996 said a memorandum of agreement is "not binding on signatories".
More from Philippines
More from World
News Editor's choice
-
Allies quit ruling coalition in Nepal
Political row could trigger months of street protests and violence
-
Qatar blaze 'started at nursery'
Fire killed 19 including 13 children, at Doha’s main shopping centre
-
Jagan jailed over illegal assets
Andhra Pradesh leader accused of corruption, cheating, conspiracy
