18 June 2016•Update: 22 June 2016
By Roy Ramos
ZAMBOANGA, the Philippines
Leaders of two former Muslim rebel groups have voiced support for incoming President Rodrigo Duterte's election priority of switching the Philippines' government from a unitary form to a parliamentary and federal model, following a meeting with the country's leader in waiting.
Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Chair Al-Hajj Murad Ebrahim, First Vice-Chairman Ghadzali Jaafar, and Moro National Liberation Front leader Datu Abul Khayr Alonto were among top Moro leaders who met with Duterte in a restaurant around 9.30 p.m (1430GMT) Friday in Davao City, in what was described as a "brother to brother" gathering.
"A federal system could very well put in place a government of transparency and accountability, and effectively address the peace and order problems including drug trafficking and kidnap for ransom," Alonto told reporters after the meeting.
"The president-elect has our commitment and our support, not only in words but in action. It's high-time not to talk and talk, all of the things we talked about, we have to do it," ABS CBN News quoted Alonto as saying.
Such an overhaul of the country's system of government would see power devolve from "imperial Manila" to long-neglected provinces, such as Mindanao in the country's Muslim south.
Alonto emphasized to reporters that Filipinos should come to realize now that a "centralized form of government is a dismal failure," claiming it as the reason why there is a war in Mindanao.
For years, criminal gangs, feuding clans, a small breakaway unit of the MILF force, and Daesh-linked radical militants have actively operated in the area, which has scared off potential investors.
By agreeing to a shift to federalism, Alonto said they remain hopeful that the "good aspects of the Bangsamoro Basic Law [BBL] will be retained," and that the country will see the Bangsamoro as a federal state model.
The law proposes replacing the current Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in the south of the mainly Roman Catholic country with a more inclusive "Bangsamoro" autonomous region as part of a peace deal between the government and the country's one-time largest Muslim rebel group.
The law, however, stalled in Congress earlier this year, as it adjourned for campaigning for the election.
The peace deal -- the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro -- was signed in 2014 under outgoing President Benigno Aquino III after 17 years of negotiations to end a decades-old armed conflict in southern Mindanao Island -- from where Duterte hails.
"God willing, Inshallah," was Alonto's reply when asked if the MILF and MNLF could finally patch things up and come up with a united front under Duterte.
Alonto heads an MNLF faction based in Central Mindanao island separate from the faction under founding chairman Nur Misuari which has a main camp in Jolo island.
Misuari is currently a fugitive, eluding charges filed against him and his men for a siege on the predominantly catholic city of Zamboanga in September 2013, in which around 300 people were killed and thousands of houses razed.
The MILF has sought to close ranks with the MNLF to push for a peace deal under the new president, and is reported to have recently sent emissaries to Misuari to discuss a "common approach" after the BBL failed to get congressional approval.
Jaafar told ABS CBN News that Misuari is optimistic of prospects of ending the four-decade-long rebellion under Duterte, who will assume office June 30.
"It's unity in diversity," Jaafar said, adding there had been separate negotiations with MNLF central committee chairman Muslimin Sema since the start of the year.
The television network quoted Sema as saying the two groups could “merge” respective peace deals with the government -- the MNLF’s Tripoli Agreement of 1976 and a subsequent agreement in 1996, and the MILF’s Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro in 2014.
“We’re actually making it easy for government,” he said. “We are calling on other factions to come on board.”
