Misuari is running for Sulu governor in 2007 polls

This file photo originally taken by Hader Glang in Barangay Taluksangay few days after the signing of peace agreement in September 1996 shows MNLF Chairman Nur Misuari, former Zamboanga City Mayor Vitaliano Agan (left), and a representative of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC).

Detained Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) chairman Nur Misuari will run for governor in the May 2007 elections following his registration at the Jolo municipal Commission on Elections (Comelec) office in Sulu Thursday.

A political observer, who requested anonymity, commented that Misuari’s running for governor will be the last nail that will seal whatever pretension he has as a revolutionary and the peace pact that he signed with the government will be dead forever.

The source said that this action by Misuari is understandable, because he seems to be no longer fighting for his principles and his people but his personal future and happiness after he has been subjected to untold sufferings inside jail.

Jolo town councilor Cocoy Tulawie, in a television interview in Zamboanga City, also confirmed that the detained MNLF leader is running for governor in next year’s elections. He did not elaborate.

The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) had repeatedly urged government to release Misuari. The OIC also wants Misuari to attend the tripartite review of the 1996 peace agreement in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on February 6 to 8 next year.

Brig. Gen. Benjamin Dolorfino, a revert to Islam and currently chairperson of the government Ad Hoc Joint Action Group (AHJAG), accompanied Misuari in his trip to Jolo Thursday after the court granted the latter’s petition to register in Sulu as voter.

Misuari signed a peace agreement with Manila on September 2, 1996, but the MNLF complained until now that the pact has not been implemented fully by the government.

He is facing rebellion charges after a failed MNLF uprising on Jolo Island and Zamboanga City in 2001. He was accused by the military of allegedly masterminding the attacks.

Until his arrest in Malaysia and imprisonment in Fort Sto. Domingo in Sta. Rosa Laguna in 2002, Misuari was the governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).