Arroyo airs hope over MILF talks
By Ferdie J. Maglalang
President
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo expressed hope yesterday that the ongoing exploratory
talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia will pave the way for the longhoped-for resumption of
the formal peace talks with the Muslim rebel group.
The President aired her optimism as the
three-man government peace panel led by Presidential Assistant for Mindanao
Affairs Jesus Dureza attempts to break the impasse that has stalled the peace
talks with the MILF in the presence of the Malaysian authorities acting as
third-party facilitator.
"I'm very grateful for this
continuing alliance between the Philippines and Malaysia for peace and against
terrorism. This (exploratory talk) also eases the situation in Mindanao,"
she said in an interview, referring to Malaysia's consent to facilitate the
talks between the government and MILF peace panels.
Dureza, along with either Defense
Undersecretary Antonio Santos Jr. or Senior Presidential Adviser Paul
Dominguez, and Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman, are now in Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia to discuss with their counterparts about the prospects of
resuming the stalled peace talks.
In a morning radio interview yesterday,
Presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said the President has given clear
instructions to the government exploratory team to look at all available means
to gauge its counterparts' disposition whether it is now ready to revive their
formal peace talks.
"The exploratory team of the
government has been instructed (by the President) to explore means to put the
formal (peace) talks back on track under a firm agenda and schedule," he
said, even as he did not pin his hope that substantive issues will be achieved
during the scheduled exploratory talks.
Bunye said negotiations for the more
substantive issues that would form part and parcel of the final peace agreement
will be done during the formal peace talks whose date and venue have yet to be
threshed out at the end of the exploratory talks in Malaysia.
"There will be no negotiation of
substantive issues yet. These discussions will take place in the prospective
formal talks," he said.
When it has unilaterally suspended the
peace talks to protest the Muslim group's continued attacks on innocent
civilians and other public utilities, the Arroyo administration has kept opened
its line of communication with the MILF through back-channeling efforts.
The government peace panel has
"walked an extra mile" in unilaterally drafting a final peace accord
with the MILF, hoping that the Muslim rebel group will use the same document as
a working reference for the mutually accepted terms that would seal off a peace
settlement between them.
The Chief Executive cited the Malaysian
government for its recent move to be a third-party facilitator, showing its
sincerity to bring about peace and development that has deprived Mindanaoans
for the past 30 decades.
"That just goes to show how
Malaysia is so sincere in helping because there are so many important key
officials that are involved in the third-party facilitation," she said.
15 killed
COTABATO (AFP) - Fifteen people were
killed in fresh attacks blamed on the biggest Muslim separatist group in the
Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)
guerrillas raided the town of
Five other civilians were wounded in
the attack on the predominantly Christian town about 900 kilometers (560 miles)
south of the capital
Government militiamen and soldiers
drove off the attackers and later recovered the bodies of five MILF rebels and
three rifles, he said.
The MILF has attacked two other areas
in the south since Tuesday, the military said.
The M'lang attack came hours before a
four-member Philippine government negotiating team, led by a member of
President Gloria Arroyo's Cabinet, left for
The rebel group has been waging a
25-year-old armed campaign for an Islamic state in the southern third of the
largely Christian
The government team, led by Social
Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman, departed at about
In the M'lang attack, Ando charged that
the guerrillas blasted houses with rocket-propelled grenades, but MILF
spokesman Eid Kabalu told AFP that his group's forces had only attacked a
military detachment in the town and denied that civilians were targets.
He said it was possible there were
civilians hit in the crossfire but said the MILF had not suffered any
casualties.
A day earlier, about 75 MILF guerrillas
stopped a cargo truck on the outskirts of nearby Carmen town, looted the goods,
tied up the Christian driver and his helper and then shot them dead, Ando said.
Kabalu also denied the military claim.