COTABATO CITY, 16 February — The government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) have agreed to set up ceasefire teams in at least 11 areas in the southern island of Mindanao to monitor and record truce violations by both parties.

In a joint statement signed on Feb. 12, both parties said they supported the Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH) quest for “a peaceful mechanism to prevent conflicts” between government and MILF forces.

Eid Kabalu, MILF spokesman, said the teams would be posted in the provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Lanao del Norte, Cotabato province, Sarangani, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga Sibugay, Basilan, Sultan Kudarat and South Cotabato.

Presidential Assistant for Mindanao Jesus Dureza, who heads the government’s peace panel in ongoing negotiations with the MILF, said the CCCH will be jointly chaired by Romeo Caliso, from the government and Taps Julhani, from the MILF.

Dureza and Kabalu said inclusion of Davao City, Davao del Sur, Davao del Norte, Compostela Valley, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and Palawan in the ceasefire monitoring would be studied and discussed when the peace panels meet again on March 9.

Frequent clashes in the past between soldiers and MILF guerrillas had been blamed for the collapse of previous talks.

The prospects of peace with the separatist rebels further dimmed in 2000, when then president Joseph Estrada ordered an all-out war against the MILF.

“With the ongoing peace negotiation, the parties concerned should now be sincere in working to attain peace so that social and economic progress would follow unhampered,” Dureza said.

Kabalu said the MILF had vowed to help the government uplift Mindanao’s image, which would include helping the government put a stop to kidnappings.

Maguindanao Representative Guimid Matalam said with the MILF’s public declaration that it would run after kidnappers, so-called “hostage-taking for a fee” would soon be a thing of the past.

Matalam said the anti-kidnapping policy of the MILF included not only running after kidnappers but also barring their entry into MILF-occupied territory.

Matalam said the CCCH in the provinces would be an ideal means of coordination in tracking down misguided MILF elements engaged in kidnapping and other criminal activities.