The Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) scrapped the Feb. 6-8 meeting that would review the FPA after Philipppine government officials met with OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanuglo last Jan. 22.

The scheduled meeting was supposed to review or at least assess the implementation of the Sept. 2, 1996 FPA signed by the government and the MNLF and brokered by OIC.

Ambassador Rafael Seguis, an expert on OIC affairs, told Manila Bulletin in a text message from Riyadh that the government did not agree on the two schedules set by the OIC. The first was in December 2006, and the second in February, this year.

Seguis and other government officials maintained that Ihsanuglo set the two meetings unilaterally without consultation with Manila.

Seguis, who is the undersecretary for Special Concerns at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), said he was accompanied in the meeting with Ihsanuglo at the OIC headquarters in Jeddah by Ambassador Antonio Villamor, Consul General Ezzedine Tago, and Consul General Pendosina Lomondot.

Seguis said the OIC officials, who include Deputy Secretary General Atta Manan Bakheet and Director Taher Ahmad Saif joined Ihsanuglo during the meeting.

"There is no (more) schedule for tripartite meeting. What the OIC wants is to have first a preparatory meeting which we also have to discuss first (in Manila) with OPAPP, DFA, and the Office of the President," Seguis said.

OPAPP stands for Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, a government agency headed by Secretary Jesus Dureza.

Another source, lawyer Bayan Balt, advocate of justice for Lake Lanao and the Maranao movement, said he was also informed by his OIC contacts on the cancellation of the meeting.

But Balt said his contacts at the OIC assured him the environmental degradation of Lake Lanao allegedly due to National Power Corp.’s hydro -electric power plants will be included in any meeting among the Philippine government, MNLF and OIC.

Seguis said the government and the OIC did not agree on the previous schedule of the three-way meeting, adding he cannot disclose the full details of the meeting with Ihsanuglo and other OIC officials until he meets with OPAPP.

Seguis hinted that another reason for the cancellation of the tripartite meeting was the continuing factionalism of the MNLF, saying he had learned that detained MNLF leader Nur Misuari submitted the members of the delegation and the MNLF Executive Council of 15 also submitted to the OIC another list.

"What about the ICC (Islamic Command Council) and the (MNLF) Reformist. Do you think they are going to unite?" he said. "I know. Hindi talaga mapapatawad ni Misuari ‘yong Council of 15," Seguis said.

He also said the OIC had long promised to unite the various factions of the MNLF. "The goverment desires to sit down with an MNLF which is truly united and representative of its entire political leadership," Seguis added.