MANILA: With prospects of peace with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) hanging in the balance, the government said it will work for the full implementation of the 1996 peace agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). “We have to clutch at points of certainty, and that is the Tripoli agreement and the 1996 agreement and all other subsequent agreements that can be made as terms of reference,” Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. told a news conference in Camp Aguinaldo yesterday. “While at the same time, we cannot proceed on the other side, on the MILF, because we don’t know what their position is,” he said. Teodoro and Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno met with Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema, who is also MNLF chairman, on the disarming and demobilization of MNLF fighters and their integration into the military and police. Sema, who was at the news conference, also denied allegations they connived with MILF forces, who staged attacks on civilian communities in Central Mindanao that triggered ongoing hostilities in the south. The fighting erupted after the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order against signing of a memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain (MOA-AD) between the government and MILF which would expand the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) into the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity. The ARMM was created under the 1996 peace agreement with the MNLF. “We begin by going back to the 1996 peace agreement, I don’t think we have a problem within the MNLF. What we’re trying to do is complete the obligations for everyone and ensure compliance of everyone to the terms of the agreement,” Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno said.
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