MANILA — Japanese and US officials yesterday called on the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) not to give up on the peace process that they have began, reminding them that peace doesn’t come overnight.

The Malaysian-brokered talks hit a snag earlier this month over the question of territory to be covered by a future Muslim homeland in the southern Philippines.

MILF Chairman Murad Ebrahim warned earlier that the talks were in danger of collapse because of the government’s lack of political will to resolve a deadlock on which areas in the southern region of Mindanao would be declared Muslim ancestral lands and included in a proposed expanded autonomous region.

The government panel has offered to add 600 villages to the current Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, which currently covers five predominantly Muslim provinces and the city of Marawi.

The MILF, however, wanted the inclusion of more than 1,000 villages.

Former UN High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata, who is visiting the Philippines as head of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), yesterday said both sides need to keep an endless reservoir of patience in seeking a settlement of a decades-long conflict.

Matthew Lussenhop, spokesman for the US Embassy in Manila, said the two parties should not allow the impasse to remain unresolved.

“The talks must go forward,” he said. “It is important to reject violence. We remain ready to provide some kind of assistance of ex-combatants once both parties reach a peace deal.”

In a forum with the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines yesterday, Ogata said she had seen cases similar to the impasse that the Philippine government and the MILF are in.

“I’ve had a lot of experience like that in many other parts of the world and I know that efforts for peace have impasses and have breakdowns, but so long as there is a willingness to try to continue to get something out of it, there is always a possibility (of an agreement),” she said.

Ogata, whose stint as UNHCR from 1991 to 2000 brought her to the world’s hot spots, cited the case of Bosnia where mapping out territories took four years.

Willingness

Ogata also vouched for the willingness of the MILF leadership to reach a peaceful settlement. “I did sense a willingness on the part of the MILF and their people that they want to carry on this effort,” she said. Ogata recently appointed a JICA representative to an international monitoring team observing a three-year cease-fire between the government and Muslim rebels.

She said her agency will provide socio-economic support to the cease-fire mission “because it would give much more clearly the impression of the dividends of peace to the people.”

The 79-year-old Ogata met with MILF Chairman Murad Ebrahim at his camp in Sultan Kudarat town in Maguindanao province on the main southern island of Mindanao last week and separately with chief government negotiator Silvestre Afable.

She also held talks with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who was “very frank” in pushing for economic support for the peace process. JICA provides about 4 billion yen ($34.2 million) in aid to the country each year, of which about 5 percent to 10 percent goes to projects in Mindanao.

Ogata said her agency’s “modest” contributions in promoting education and building multipurpose community centers will be steadily expanded in the coming months. “Peace doesn’t come overnight but as peace is built, then activities will expand. And after a situation of the kind that exists in Mindanao, don’t expect overnight success. But you have to be at it persistently,” she said. (With reports from Agencies)