U.S. TO PLAY SUPPORTING ROLE IN TALKS WITH MILF - OPLE

Manila, June 27, 2003 By Pia Lee-Brago (Star) The United States will play a supporting role in the government’s efforts to seek a peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople announced yesterday.

Ople said a US-supported non-government organization, the Institute for Peace, will be "the focal point" of US participation by providing "financial and diplomatic support" to the peace process.

Ople, however, did not specify how much in aid the US government will provide through the Washington-based institute.

President Arroyo endorsed the US role in the peace process in a recent meeting with US Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Daley, Ople said.

Mrs. Arroyo, however, urged the MILF yesterday to disclose the origin and intended target of a large cache of plastic explosives seized by the military over the weekend.

She stressed that the MILF’s reaction would determine the government’s response to its peace overtures.

"We are preparing for the start of peace talks but this does not mean we are being tactically blind to events," Mrs. Arroyo said.

Ople, meanwhile, said Malaysia has welcomed a supporting role for the United States in brokering the peace talks with the separatist guerrillas.

"The central role for facilitating and mediating still belongs to Malaysia. The US will be mainly in a supporting role to Malaysia, which is the principal facilitator and mediator," he said.

Ople also disclosed the government has set July 1 as target date for the resumption of peace talks with the MILF in Malaysia.

He said the government has asked the MILF to submit the names of five negotiators. A ceasefire is yet to be declared before the formal peace talks resume.

"It is a target date for the peace process to resume. It is the target date of the Cabinet Oversight Committee on Internal Security (COCIS) which met Wednesday," Ople said.

Asked when a ceasefire is expected to be declared, Ople emphasized that a "ceasefire is supposed to be in place on or before the target date of resumption of peace talks."

"That is an expression of hope in my part," he added.

Ople said the Department of Justice (DOJ) is awaiting the list of the five rebel negotiators, which is expected to be headed by MILF chairman Hashim Salamat, so it can act on the possible lifting of warrants for their arrest.

Warrants of arrest had been issued for Salamat and other senior leaders of the MILF over the deadly bomb attacks in Davao City that left 38 people dead and over a hundred others wounded last March and April.

"These are some conditions required by the (Davao) courts to lift the warrants of arrest, and the MILF will have to comply with that in order for the negotiators in the MILF to be cleared before they could go to Malaysia," Ople said.

Ople stressed only the courts have the power to lift or recall the arrest warrants for Salamat and senior MILF leaders.

Prospects for reviving peace talks between the government and the MILF improved in recent days after the Muslim rebel leaders apparently complied with government conditions like renouncing terrorism and ties to foreign extremist groups.

But Mrs. Arroyo said the MILF must do more and show its sincerity and explain the explosives seized from them.

The military seized the 450-kilogram cache of C-4 plastic explosives on Saturday during a raid on an alleged MILF bomb-making facility in Kabuntalan, Maguindanao.

Government troops also discovered other bomb-making facilities near the area camouflaged by thick shrubs to conceal them from reconnaissance planes.

Troops further uncovered other bomb-making facilities in the area, which yielded several gunpowder kegs, rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), chemicals and bomb-making devices and accessories.

The military said the camp belonged to the 16th Unit Command of the MILF’s 101st Base Command of the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF) Abubakar Base.

Mrs. Arroyo spoke as she inspected the explosives, mortar shells, rocket grenades and bomb-making materials in Camp Aguinaldo yesterday.

The discovery "only sets back the peace process," Mrs. Arroyo said as she called on the MILF leadership to explain "why such ordnance is apparently being harbored by its members."

She said the response of the MILF "will largely determine our reciprocal attitude and actions."

"Whether the peace process moves forward or lags behind is largely in the hands of the MILF," Mrs. Arroyo said.

"In line with this statement, I am strongly urging a complete disclosure of information regarding this cache of explosives, especially its source, the identity of its owners, the intended targets and the involvement, if any, of any transnational terrorists smuggling and hoarding this deadly materiel," she said.

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu denied the explosives belonged to them and claimed it was "planted" by the military. But Mrs. Arroyo said "denials of knowledge or the absurd claim that this was planted by our troops are unacceptable."

Kabalu claimed the MILF had no C-4 in its arsenal and charged the military with "using the MILF as a scapegoat" for a series of bloody bombings in Mindanao.

Mrs. Arroyo said the explosives cache is larger than the entire C-4 inventory of the Armed Forces. Military officials said it was enough to blow up a 10-story building, or to manufacture more than 700 explosive devices.

"C-4 is a favored terrorist weapon because it is relatively safe to handle, transport and hide – until ready to use," the President said.

MILF’s ‘Comical Ali’

Kabalu on Tuesday said the government and the MILF have signed an agreement setting the stage for the resumption of the peace talks in Kuala Lumpur.

But yesterday, Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said Norberto Gonzales, presidential adviser for special concerns and government negotiator, denied signing anything with the MILF.

Bunye stressed government negotiators confirmed no agreement was signed and that they merely agreed "in principle" to resume talks as soon as possible.

Kabalu now insisted the government and the MILF had not signed a formal agreement to resume talks in Malaysia but had merely "affirmed" documents from previous negotiations.

For his part, Sen. Rodolfo Biazon questioned Kabalu on his earlier statement Tuesday wherein he claimed the government had agreed to several key elements to pave the way for the peace talks.

"I am worried about this and if Kabalu is telling the truth. These matters that the government was reported to have agreed with the MILF are really alarming," Biazon said.

Presidential adviser on strategic concerns Renato de Villa also rebuked Kabalu for "too much embellishments" in claiming that both government and the MILF have supposedly signed in Kuala Lumpur an agreement to restart the peace talks.

De Villa categorically denied no such formal agreement was signed by Gonzales who conducted "informal backdoor channel" talks last week with unnamed MILF representatives in Kuala Lumpur.

He said Mrs. Arroyo has not authorized anybody to sign any agreement or any document with the MILF.

De Villa, however, confirmed the Philippine government has formally requested Malaysia to send a ceasefire monitoring team once formal talks start.

For his part, De Villa went on to liken the MILF spokesman to Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, Iraq’s information minister at the end of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

"If you remember the Iraq war, he (Sahaf) was the spokesman in the war in Iraq. He did not even believe the Americans were already in front of them, he won’t believe it," De Villa said.

De Villa said the government gets its information from reliable MILF sources who cannot surface because of the warrants of arrest for them.

"On the other hand, they (MILF) have a spokesman who is, I would say, inclined to embellish certain positions that they would like to put in public’s mind into and we are not, I repeat, we are not accepting the public statements of Eid Kabalu as official positions of the MILF," De Villa said. – With Marichu Villanueva, Mike Frialde, Edith Regalado, John Paul Jubelag, AFP