MANILA/KIDAPAWAN, 18 June — Vice President Teofisto Guingona is to leave for Libya today to lead officials in the opening of peace talks with the country’s main Moro separatist group.
Guingona, who is also secretary of foreign affairs, told reporters yesterday that representatives from Malaysia and Indonesia will also attend the June 20 talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to be hosted by Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi.
“Libya wants to give due importance to the coming peace proposal,” Guingona said.
Libya, along with fellow Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) members Malaysia and Indonesia, helped initiate peace talks between Manila and the larger Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in 1996.
The MILF is the country’s main Muslim separatist group waging a 23-year war for the establishment of an independent Islamic state in the south. It broke away from the MNLF in 1978 and was left out of the 1996 peace accord.
Libya wants “to continue what it started with the MILF,” Guingona said.
The landmark peace talks will be held in “shifting venues” between Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur, Indonesia’s Jakarta and Libyan capital Tripoli, with representatives from the three countries acting as mediators, he said.
In the city of Kidapawan in Mindanao, MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu yesterday said the separatist group is willing to disarm “provided that a permanent political settlement to the Mindanao armed conflict acceptable to the Bangsamoro people” is signed by both parties.
Kabalu was reacting to North Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Pi?ol’s proposal that the MILF disarm first before the start of the peace talks in Tripoli on June 20.
Pi?ol had been known for his tough opposition against the MILF.
Kabalu urged Pi?ol to help work out permanent political solution instead of posing obstacles to the peace negotiations.
Oslo talks
Also yesterday, the government said it will resume peace talks with the communist National Democratic Front (NDF) in August after a two-month recess called earlier to protest the killing of a legislator.
The cooling off period was a time to “consult with the people and Malaca?ang (presidential palace)” over the killing of House of Representatives member Rodolfo Aguinaldo, said Sylvestre Bello.
Leaders of the NDF’s military wing New People’s Army (NPA) claimed responsibility for the murder of Aguinaldo, a former military officer and governor of Cagayan province.
They said Aguinaldo was killed for his alleged blood debts to the people.
“It was the (government) panel that pushed for a recess, it will also be us who would press for the resumption of talks,” Bello said in a telephone interview.
“The Norwegian government also has its own limitations so the only viable period is second week of August,” Bello said.
The talks being held on neutral territory in Oslo, Norway cannot resume next month as it is Norway’s peak tourism season, and elections are scheduled for September.
Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison had threatened to pull out of the talks altogether, accusing the government of effectively scuttling the peace process.
