By DAVID DIZON
abs-cbnNEWS.com

The Moro National Liberation Front Central Committee has elected Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema as the chairman of the MNLF, replacing current chairman and founder Nur Misuari.

Sema, the former secretary-general of the organization, said the Central Committee decided to declare the position of chairman vacant Tuesday night during a meeting in Pagadian City.

"It is has always been the policy of the MNLF that when there seems to be a vacancy or inactivity of the chairman of the MNLF, that the vacancy be addressed," Sema told abs-cbnNEWS.com.

He said at least 32 percent of active MNLF Central Committee members voted that he replace Misuari as MNLF chief. He admitted that it was not the first time that the MNLF had replaced Misuari as chairman.

Sema is a member of the Council of 15, a faction of the MNLF that declared Misuari as the front’s chairman emeritus in April 2000 and installed a new central leadership for the group because of the alleged “eroding confidence” over Misuari’s leadership.

Sema said the present MNLF leadership will continue to work to have a good working relationship with the government. "We signed a peace agreement in 1996 and it is wise to continue to work for that peace," he said.

He also downplayed reports that MNLF forces are teaming Abu Sayyaf militants to launch attacks on police and military camps in Sulu province.

"As far as the MNLF leadership in that province is concerned, they have a close working relationship with the military and police. They are opposed to violence of any kind. Of course, there are still rogue elements which we are trying to address to put a stop to all these instabilities," he said.

Chief Superintendent Joel Goltiao, Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) police chief, earlier said Abu Sayyaf militants and rogue MNLF guerrillas are plotting new terrorist attacks in Sulu province to force the government to release Misuari.

Misuari has been detained since 2002 for leading a failed mutiny in Jolo, Sulu, some two weeks before the 2001 ARMM elections.

A Philippine Star report earlier said Libyan officials will arrive in the country this month to help reconcile the rival MNLF factions and reunite the fragmented rebel leadership to hasten the Mindanao peace process.

The Libyan initiative is in support of Resolution 2/11-MM (IS) of the Organization of Islamic Conference, drafted during the March 13-14 summit of the group in Dakar, Senegal, that urged the MNLF and rival Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to combine their peace and development initiatives for Muslim communities in the Mindanao.

The OIC, the most influential group of Muslim countries that include oil-rich nations in the Middle East, helped broker the September 2, 1996 peace agreement between the government and the MNLF.

In an e-mail to selected reporters in Central Mindanao, Salem Adam, former Libyan ambassador to Manila, said he and several Libyan dignitaries will preside over the “reunification dialogues” among MNLF leaders from April 19 to 20 to iron out misunderstandings among them.

Adam, who is now a special emissary of Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi, said separate dialogues will also be initiated with the MILF, which has an on-going peace talks with government, as part of Libya’s effort to foster unity between the two rebel factions for them and the leaders of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) to agree on a common “peace roadmap” for the so-called Bangsamoro communities in the South.       

“We plan to hold a meeting with MNLF leaders in Manila from 19 to 21 of April 2008 to agree on (the) next Tripoli meeting agenda for unity among MNLF groups and to forge unity between MNLF and MILF,” Adam said in his statement emailed from Tripoli.

Adam and Saiful Al-Islam, son of Gaddafi, met last November with leaders of the MNLF, the MILF, and the ARMM in Makati City and called on all Mindanao leaders to consolidate their peace initiatives and draft a common blueprint for peace and development in Southern Philippines.