INQUIRER.net Eleksyon 2007

Misuari allowed to file candidacy in Sulu

Inquirer

DJ Yap

MANILA, Philippines -- Detained Moro rebel leader Nur Misuari will fly to Mindanao Tuesday to file his certificate of candidacy for Sulu governor after a Makati court granted his request to travel, his lawyer said Sunday.

Judge Winlove Dumayas of Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 59 allowed Misuari to personally submit his certificate of candidacy to the Commission on Elections office in Jolo, lawyer Ombra Jainal said.

“He will be on the first flight to Zamboanga on March 20. All the arrangements are ready,” Jainal told the Philippine Daily Inquirer by phone. “But he will return to Manila on the same day.”

The lawyer said he received the order allowing Misuari to travel on Friday.

“This will have no bearing on his case,” Jainal said, adding that the rebellion charge, now under reinvestigation by the Department of Justice, would be dismissed soon.

“If this was not a political case, this would have been dismissed a long time ago,” he said. “What I know is the case is very weak. It will be dismissed anytime. We’re just waiting for the resolution.”

Misuari faces rebellion charges in connection with an uprising by his followers in Jolo in November 2001.

He has been under house arrest since mid-2006 in New Manila area, Quezon City, near St. Luke’s Medical Center, where he was previously taken after complaining of various ailments, including hypertension.

Asked how Misuari, who was allowed to fly to Jolo to register as a voter last December, intended to campaign while in detention, Jainal said: “He does not need to campaign. He will win.”

On the coming tripartite peace talks scheduled in July in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the lawyer expressed confidence that Misuari would be allowed to attend as head of the delegation of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).

“If he’s not there, there will be no tripartite talks. He’ll be allowed to go,” Jainal said.

The MNLF was founded by Misuari in the early ’70s with the intention of creating an independent Moro nation.

In 1996, Misuari signed a peace accord with then President Fidel Ramos, ending one of the longest-running insurgencies in Southeast Asia.

Misuari became governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) but was removed five years later by his own followers for mismanagement and abuse of power.

In 2001, Misuari led a rebellion against the government. The rebellion, which resulted in the deaths of some 100 people, was put down and Misuari fled to Malaysia, where he was arrested.

He has been in detention since then awaiting trial.

The government is negotiating a peace accord with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which broke away from the MNLF when the ARMM was formed, claiming the agreement did not give the Moro people full autonomy.

The MILF has had a ceasefire with the government for three years but talks have stalled over the issue of ancestral domain -- land over which the Moro people claim ownership. With an AFP report

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