MNLF Chairman Nur Misuari has batted for the creation of four federal states instead of the 11 proposed by Sen. Aquilino Pimentel, Speaker Prospero Nograles said Saturday. Nograles told reporters here that Misuari recently met with him and asked him to support the idea of a federal system.
“(He) tried to convince me to support the federal bid but only four states,” Nograles said. The four states that Misuari had identified are Luzon, Metro Manila, Visayas and Mindanao according to Nograles.
He said that he told the Moro rebel he will present the idea to Congress. Nograles said his position on federalism will only be made known after the House had already deliberated on the issue. “I don’t want to impose my thinking on this,” he said.
Senate President Manny Villar had said there was a need to listen to all points of discussion on federalism.
He said the resolution recently passed by 11 senators was only intended to start discussions on the proposal to change the system of government.
“But that is all there is to it. Just to allow the discussion (of issues) to start,” Villar said. He said the discussion on the proposal should be participated in by a wide spectrum of the community because it is a major issue. Villar said because of this need, the change in the form of government might not be realized as Malacañang would have wanted it.
Nograles said the MNLF will conduct consultations here but it was not clear whether or not federalism would be discussed.
Misuari had already informed Mayor Rodrigo Duterte that the consultation will precede the tripartite meeting between the government, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), which was set this month.
The tripartite meeting was aimed at ironing out alleged kinks in the implementation of the 1996 peace agreement signed by the government and the MNLF.(By Dennis Jay Santos & Eldie Aguirre, INQ.net)
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