Sajahatra Bangsamoro Program: Peace Dividends of the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) beneficiaries listens to the speech of President Benigno S. Aquino III during the Ceremonial Launch at the Bangsamoro Leadership and Management Institute (BLMI) in Barangay Salimbao, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao on Monday (February 11, 2013). (MNS photo)
MANILA (Mabuhay) — The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is not keen on reviving sultanates once the Bangsamoro political entity is established.
MILF’s website Luwaran quoted MILF committee on information deputy chairman Khaled Musa as saying: “We want to preserve it, but we will not revive it.”
Some 200 Filipinos, who claimed to be followers of Crown Prince Rajah Mudah Agbimuddin Kiram, entered Sabah last week.
Their intentions were unclear at the beginning, until Sultan Jamalul Kiram III said a royal decree was issued ordering his men to go there and establish anew their claim on Sabah. He said they have been alienated by the peace deal between the MILF and the government.
Khaled denied this, saying Kiram’s group has been contacted regarding the peace deal. “We have reached out to you as we did to other groups in Mindanao on the subject of resolving the conflict in Mindanao. We did this on several occasions particularly when the MILF peace panel had a sortie in Zamboanga City more than a year ago.”
Khaled said the MILF will not stand in the way if the sultanates would want to revive their political systems.
“The sultanate is part of Moro history and heritage and it is one of the basis of the present Moro’s assertion of its right to self-determination,” Musa said.
On the continuing standoff in Sabah, he said he would rather remain silent. He said the MILF central committee has not made any guidelines on the matter yet.
Luwaran noted that Commonwealth President Manuel L. Quezon abolished the sultanates and the datu system in 1935. He said then: “… The sultans have no more rights than the humblest Moro and that under my administration the humblest Moro will be given as much protection as any datu under the law, and that his rights will be recognized exactly as the rights of a datu will be, and that every datu will have to comply with his duties as citizen to same extent and in the same manner that the humblest Moro is obligated.” (MNS)