MANILA: The Philippines made a fresh push to end 40 years of Muslim secessionist conflict in the country’s south by forming a new negotiating panel yesterday, saying it hoped to resume peace talks in early 2009.
Two former lawmakers and a Muslim who is part of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s cabinet have been named to a panel that will try to convince the largest Muslim rebel group in the south, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), to lay down their arms.
All three are based in southern Mindanao island, where about 120,000 people have been killed in a conflict that has scared potential investors from extracting huge deposits of oil, natural gas and minerals.
“We are still assembling the pieces to get the peace process started again in a way that upholds our commitment to peace,” said Hermogenes Esperon, a retired general and Arroyo’s peace adviser, who is not part of the panel.
Esperon said that the GRP panel would be headed by Undersecretary Rafael Seguis whose members would include Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman, to provide continuity and represent the Muslims; General Santos Mayor Adelbert Antonino to represent the local government and the Christian community; former sectoral congressman Ronald Adamat from Maguindanao, to represent the Lumads.
He said talks could resume early next year once both parties agreed to sit down.
But Mohaqher Iqbal, the MILF’s chief negotiator, said he doubted whether talks could resume soon.
“Until now, we have not received any response from Malaysia with regard to the resumption of talks,” Iqbal said, adding that Kuala Lumpur, which has been facilitating talks since 2001, should inform both parties when negotiations are to be resumed.
“Our position has not changed. We’ll only negotiate based on the ancestral domain agreement that we failed to sign in Kuala Lumpur in August,” Iqbal said.
— With input from agencies
