Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Annabelle Abaya Sunday hailed as a “giant step” forward the move of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to urge two secessionist groups in the Philippines to work with the government for a lasting peace in Mindanao. With the OIC's help, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) have created a coordination committee “to consolidate their movements toward achieving the aspirations of the Bangsamoro people for genuine self-governance,” the MILF said Sunday. “We express our profound appreciation to the OIC for its continued support in the Philippine quest for peace,” Abaya said in a statement. OIC Secretary General Ekmelledin Ihsanoglu reportedly invited heads of MILF and MNLF to a closed-door meeting on May 18 in Tajikistan, attended by high-level officials of the OIC General Secretariat. “I hail the initiative of the OIC to help bring the MNLF and MILF together to work with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) in pursuing the aspirations of the Bangsamoro,” Abaya said. Abaya said this new “development is a giant step in moving the peace forward and inspiring all peace-loving people worldwide that peace is better achieved by talk rather than by violence.” In government's peace efforts with the MILF, formal peace negotiations in Kuala Lumpur resumed last Dec. 8, after 16 months in the doldrums following the aborted signing of the controversial Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) which was declared as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
