Peace at hand in the Philippines

Peace at hand in the Philippines

Twenty years after Imelda Marcos and Libyan leader Muammar
Gaddafi brokered an agreement in Tripoli to end a Moslem
separatist rebellion in the southern Philippines, peace appears
to be at hand in the long-troubled region.

Last week, a government panel and leaders of the mainstream
Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) signed an agreement for the
creation of a guerrilla-led council which will implement the
provisions of the peace pact signed in the Libyan capital in
1976.

The establishment of the Southern Philippines Council for
Peace and Development (SPCPD) broke the stalemate in the peace
process springing from a fundamental disagreement on how to
implement the Tripoli agreement.

It would give the MNLF, led by former state university
professor Nur Misuari, a major role in developing the 14
provinces and nine cities in southern Mindanao island without the
need for a constitutionally-mandated plebiscite.

The agreement is expected to be a significant part of a peace
pact that is to be finalized in Jakarta by next month that will
end a rebellion that has cost more than 50,000 lives since it
broke out in 1972.

Past unilateral attempts by Manila to enforce the Tripoli
agreement by holding plebiscites on the establishment of an
autonomous government has been denounced by the MNLF as a
violation of the pact.

After winning over the military rebels responsible for a
series of coup attempts which almost toppled his predecessor, a
pact with Moslem rebels will greatly boost (President Fidel
Ramos') political stock and jump start development in the
southern Mindanao which is part of a budding ASEAN economic
growth area along the Philippines' common borders with Brunei,
Indonesia and Malaysia.

His efforts at making peace with the communist forces have
gained headway with the resumption of formal talks last month in
the Netherlands. Four years after he become president, Ramos'
peace efforts appear well on their way to a successful conclusion
when he ends his term in 1998.

If he does succeed, he could very well be remembered as the
soldier turned politician who was able to transform guns into
plowshares in his time.

-- The Nation, Bangkok