The government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front also said that they’ll meet again next month to fast-track talks on an autonomy for Muslims who have been fighting for self-rule for decades.
The latest round of talks was held in Malaysia, which is leading a team of international cease-fire monitors. About 60 monitors, who have been based in the southern Mindanao region since 2004, also include members from Libya, Brunei, Norway, Japan and the European Union.
Talks have been called into question since the government accused the rebels of killing 19 troops in an ambush in October. But President Benigno Aquino III had rejected calls for an all-out offensive against the 11,000-strong rebels and refused to scrap the peace talks.
In his opening statement in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, chief government negotiator Marvic Leonen called for the completion of the political settlement within the first quarter of next year, and expressed satisfaction with the conditions on the ground. The rebels did not comment immediately beyond the joint statement.
During earlier talks, they rejected a government proposal for autonomy as falling short of their expectation and said they wanted a status for Muslims akin to a US federal state. The government did not agree, saying its wants to preserve the Philippines as a unitary republic under its current constitution.
The subsequent violence and bouts of fighting also highlighted the shortcomings of the cease-fire agreement, which also calls on the rebels to assist government troops in eliminating “lawless elements” — an ambiguous reference that includes past and current rebels accused by the government of a range of crimes from murder to kidnapping.
Leonen again called on the rebels this week to show more commitment by “actively identifying and assisting in the arrest of many lawless elements.”
“Let us prove that our cease-fire mechanisms are not havens for kidnappers, murderers and terrorists,” he said.
The rebels deny sheltering any such elements.
