Government set to talk with MNLF in May

MANILA, Philippines - Talks with Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) founder Nur Misuari may start next month, President Duterte said, as he urged rebels to control their forces while the negotiations are ongoing.

“Nur Misuari assured me we can begin talks by next month,” Duterte told reporters in Cagayan de Oro yesterday.

Duterte and Misuari met in Malacañang last Monday to discuss the peace talks and the situation in Mindanao. Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said the meeting between the two was “warm and cordial.”

Misuari founded the MNLF in 1972 to fight for the creation of an independent Moro state in Mindanao. The group and the government forged the Tripoli Agreement in 1976 which led to the creation of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao two decades later.

Misuari, who was accused of plotting the bloody Zamboanga siege in 2013, met with Duterte in Malacañang last November after the court had suspended the implementation of an arrest warrant against him.

Even before the siege, Misuari has been criticizing the peace talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the breakaway group of the MNLF.