Rafael Seguis, Department of Foreign Affairs undersecretary for special concerns, said the 10-man Brunei delegation will be headed by Lt. Col. Haji Aminuddin Ishan bin Pehin Orang Kaya Saiful Mulok Dato Seri Paduka Haji Abidin (Lt. Col. Aminuddin), commanding officer of the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Brunei Land Forces.

"This [arrival of Brunei team] is another historic moment in the Philippine peace process and also the first time for Brunei to send a contingent to Mindanao as their active contribution in the Philippines' quest for peace," Seguis said in a statement at the DFA website.

The IMT is monitoring the implementation of the general ceasefire agreement between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
 

Seguis added the team is expected to arrive at the Villamor Air Base on board a Royal Brunei military aircraft from Bandar Seri Begawan on Wednesday.

Secretary Teresita Quintos-Deles, presidential adviser on the peace process, will lead ther government and military officials in welcoming the Brunei delegation at the VIP Lounge Base Operations, where the Malaysian contingent was received on October 9.

Malaysian Major General Dato Sulkfeli bin Mohamad Zin, IMT head, will also be around to meet the delegation from Brunei.

Brunei, like Malaysia, is a member of the Committee of the Eight which the 57 member-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) has tasked to look after the peace process between the Philippine government and Moro rebels.

Sulkfeli and at least 40 other Malaysians arrived in Manila on October 9 and proceeded to Mindanao soon after.

The IMT will establish offices in the cities of General Santos, Iligan, Zamboanga, Davao and Cotabato.

But Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat does not want the IMT to set up office in Zamboanga, saying it is not part of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

Lobregat also cited the local gun ban ordinance as reason for opposing the request of the IMT to set up office in his city. The IMT office is supposed to be guarded by joint elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the MILF.

Lobregat urged the IMT to set up office in the conflict-affected areas in the ARMM.

Sequis said the IMT's tour of duty in the country is at least year.

.MILF spokesperson Eid Kabalu said the deployment of the IMT in Mindanao was the last remaining obstacle towards the resumption of formal peace negotiations. The last formal peace talks were held in October 2001 but several exploratory talks had been conducted in preparation for the resumption of the formal talks in Malaysia.
 

Kabalu said that when formal peace talks resume, negotiations would dwell on ancestral domain aspect, the last on the agenda of the formal talks.