ZAMBOANGA CITY, 20 July 2003 — Guns fell silent yesterday in the southern Philippines as government forces and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) observed the first day of truce in the strife-torn region.

“It’s been silent so far. There have been no reports of clashes between troops and separatist Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines,” the Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesman, Lt. Col. Daniel Lucero, told the Arab News.

President Arroyo ordered the military to halt assaults, Lucero said. “From punitive action, the military is now on an active defense mode,” he said.

Manila has forged a cease-fire agreement with the country’s largest Muslim separatist group in an effort to restart stalled peace talks.

In another positive development, MILF chief Hashim Salamat has agreed to head the Front’s peace panel when it meets with government negotiators in Malaysia in the coming weeks.

Ghazali Jaafar, the Front’s vice chairman for political affairs, announced the MILF decision after the government suspended arrest warrants for Salamat and other top MILF leaders for their alleged involvement in a series of bloody bombings in March and April.

Manila also granted safety passes to MILF peace negotiators to allow them to travel to Malaysia for the negotiations.

President Gloria Arroyo went on radio to ask both panels to begin formal talks as soon as possible “so we can immediately come out with a peace agreement.”

The Philippine government had previously insisted that Salamat lead the rebel peace panel so that any agreements reached would be binding. The MILF had resisted this demand.

But Jaafar yesterday told DXMS radio station in the southern city of Cotabato that Salamat was persuaded by Malaysian authorities to join the talks.

On the other hand, it was upon Malaysia’s suggestion that the arrest warrants be suspended and the bounty placed on the MILF leaders heads would be dropped.

Malaysia, an influential member of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), is mediating the peace talks between the Philippines and the MILF. The OIC has openly supported the talks.

Jaafar said the suspension of the arrest warrants was “a very welcome development.”

“It has convinced us the government is sincere in dealing with us because we have been sincere from the very beginning. I hope this will continue,” he said.

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said MILF fighters were ordered to abide strictly with the cease-fire agreement.

“We are religiously observing the truce and there have been no hostilities,” Kabalu told the Arab News in a separate phone interview from his hideout in central Mindanao.

Communist Rebels

While it was all quiet in MILF front, which covers most of the lower portion of the main southern island of Mindanao, fighting erupted in the northern Mindanao province of Agusan del Sur between soldiers and communist rebels.

Military spokesman Lucero said three soldiers of army’s 72nd Infantry Battalion were injured when they clashed with guerrillas of the New People’s Army (NPA).

Lucero claimed that an undetermined number of NPA guerrillas were either killed or wounded.

“We have intercepted enemy radio messages saying many dissident-terrorists are killed and injured. Troops are pursuing them,” he said.

The fighting lasted more than 30 minutes, he said. “The rebels retreated, but operation is going in the town’s hinmterlands,” Lucero said. He said the rebels were collecting “revolutionary taxes” from miners in the town and have been threatening those who refused to pay up.

On Thursday, about 70 NPA rebels attacked Thursday the Filipina Palm Oil Plantation in the village Maligaya in Rosario town and torched four tractors.

They also took four motorcycles before fleeing. There were no reports of casualties in the attack, the military said.

The military said rebels stormed the plantation after its Filipino owners refused to pay illegal taxes.

Communist rebels have stepped up their offensive in the countryside and have so far killed more than 40 people the past months in a series of raids on government and military targets.

The United States and the European Union has listed the NPA and the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its political wing the National Democratic Front (NDF) as a foreign terrorist organization.