January 18, 2010 - The Buayan Provincial Committee, Social Welfare Committee, and the 105th Base Command – Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF) of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) joined efforts to convene their 2nd General Peace Assembly starting January 15 at Barangay Pusao, Mamasapano, Maguindanao.

Some 5,000 of their members participated in General Assembly at Pusao, an area where scores of bloody and destructive battles between the government and MILF forces took place from August 2008 to June 2009.

Key resources speakers and the participants focused their discussions on how to foster unity among the Bangsamoro people particularly in the areas of Buayan, to consolidate inter and intra cooperation and solidarity within the MILF committees and ground forces, and to optimize support for the ongoing peace process in the wake of the resumption of the formal negotiations between the government and MILF.

“We need to unify our ideas, efforts and resolve under the guidance of Allah, now and more than ever, to achieve success in the struggle of the Bangsamoro to regain our homeland and right to self-determination,” said the Chairman of Buayan Provincial Committee.

Buayan Committee is directly under the MILF Central Committee through Chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim. But for operational purposes, Ghazali Jaafar, Vice Chairman for Political Affairs of the MILF, usually handles the day to day. It is composed of several municipalities in the second district of Maguindanao.

The Social Welfare Committee (SWC) is one of the agencies of the MILF Central Committee, while the 105th Base Command is under the General Staff – BIAF which fiercely fought the government forces in the provinces of Maguindanao and Cotabato for nearly a year following the aborted signing of the GRP – MILF Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain in Malaysia last August 5, 2008.

“It is but proper to maximize development undertakings and dividends during the relative peace time. And we hope that lasting peace and prosperity will be achieved through diplomacy and negotiation,” said one of the top commanders of the 105th Base Command.

The program was lively and warm but most of the participants clamored for the immediate return of the hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons to their respective places of origins in Maguindanao.

An official of the SWC, whose name was not identified, opined that the redeployment of the Malaysia-led International Monitoring Team (IMT) is a decisive factor that can convince the IDPs to go back home.

“But how can those whose houses were burned down and farms and livelihood were destroyed by the government forces return if they have nothing to return to,” she asked.

Meanwhile, Mohagher Iqbal, Chairman of the MILF Peace Negotiating Panel, the keynote speaker, said the peace negotiations had formally started last December 2009, adding that the agenda is now on the negotiated political settlement of the Bangsamoro problem which will be in the form of a comprehensive peace compact (CPC).

Iqbal however, clarified that there is no pre-determined timeline for the discussion of the CPC, even as he said that it is expected to be very ticklish and lengthy.

The MILF Chief Negotiator, who is a reputable historian and academician, with the members of the MILF Central Committee and Ceasefire Committee reminisce the grandeur of Buayan since the time of Spanish colonial attempts to conquer the Bangsamoro people and their ancestral homeland, which deeply touched the hearts and minds of the audience.