What is the background to the HD Centres involvement in the Philippine province of Mindanao?
In 1976, the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) signed the Tripoli Agreement. The MNLF gave up its demands for independence and the GRP agreed to wide-ranging autonomy. However, following the Agreement, the MNLF splintered. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) broke away from the MNLF demanding independence. The 1976 Tripoli Agreement was never implemented and fighting restarted. In 1996, the MNLF and the GRP, led by President Fidel V. Ramos, resumed talks and signed the “Final Peace Agreement” which appeared tend the conflict between them. The Chairman of the MNLF, Professor Nur Misuari, was annointed as the Ramos Administration’s official candidate for Regional Governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). During elections in 1996 which he won, institutions were established to channel aid to the region, and 7,250 MNLF fighters were integrated into the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philip
