- MANILA: Muslim guerrillas say they have rejected the Philippine government's latest autonomy offer.Rebel negotiator Mohagher Iqbal said Wednesday that government negotiators offered a type of limited autonomy that the guerrillas had already rejected twice in the past because it gave them too little power.
The negotiators and the 11,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which has fought for Muslim self-rule in the southern Philippines for decades, last month resumed peace talks following a yearlong hiatus.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita acknowledged that a peace deal is unlikely to be signed under Arroyo if the rebels insist on the establishment of a Muslim region similar to a federal state, which will require amendments to the country's constitution.
