Villagers with food sacks prepare to return home Sunday, August 31, from a distribution center in Sarangani province in southern Philippines. The humanitarian organization called World Vision distributed more than 2,000 food packs in the villages of Lumasal, Pananag, Lumatil and Daliao. Rebels attacked the town of Maasim on August 18 and killed two civilians. (Photo by Jun Ramos / Sarangani Information Office)
MAGUINDANAO, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / August 31, 2008) – The Philippines’ largest Muslim rebel group, Moro Islamic Liberation Front, held a crucial meeting Sunday to discuss the fate of the peace talks with the Arroyo government.
President Gloria Arroyo, who opened peace talks with the rebels in 2001, has already scrapped a territorial deal with the MILF after the Supreme Court stopped its formal signing last month in Malaysia when lawmakers and politicians opposed to the accord filed separate petitions, saying, there were no public consultations.
The peace talks are in danger of collapsing because of the aborted deal and the continued fighting in the southern Philippines between military and rebel forces.
“We are having a meeting right now to assess the peace talks with the Philippine government. The peace talks are now in purgatory,” Mohagher Iqbal, chief MILF peace negotiator, told the Mindanao Examiner.
President Gloria Arroyo, who opened peace talks with the rebels in 2001, has already scrapped a territorial deal with the MILF after the Supreme Court stopped its formal signing last month in Malaysia when lawmakers and politicians opposed to the accord filed separate petitions, saying, there were no public consultations.
The peace talks are in danger of collapsing because of the aborted deal and the continued fighting in the southern Philippines between military and rebel forces.
“We are having a meeting right now to assess the peace talks with the Philippine government. The peace talks are now in purgatory,” Mohagher Iqbal, chief MILF peace negotiator, told the Mindanao Examiner.
Peace negotiators in July initially signed the memorandum of agreement on the ancestral domain that would have granted some four million Muslims their own homeland in more than 700 villages across Mindanao, whose 21 million populations are mostly Christians.
The homeland deal sparked a series of protests from politicians and residents who were opposed to the inclusion of their areas to the agreement that will make up the so-called Bangsamoro Juridical Entity.
Arroyo has shifted in the basic premise of the government's peace effort after hundreds of rebels under Ameril Kato and Abdurahman Macapaar led a series of attacks in the provinces in Mindanao that killed dozens of civilians.
Manila demanded the MILF to surrender peacefully the two rogue commanders, now wanted by authorities, to face trial over the killings of civilians in the provinces of North Cotabato, Lanao del Norte, Sarangani, Sultan Kudarat and Maguindanao where rebel forces brutally killed innocent civilians and pillaged Christian villages.
Rebel forces launched the attacks after the failed signing of the controversial ancestral domain agreement. The MILF said it will not surrender the two rebel commanders and warned Manila that an all-out war could erupt in Mindanao if the peace talks fail and military offensive is not halted.
“This is a long process and the MILF leadership will talk about the future of the peace talks with the Arroyo government,” Iqbal said.
Iqbal also complained that his cell phones have been bugged by the military and that authorities were monitoring his conversations. “My cell phones now have become a tracking device,” he said without elaborating further.
Some journalists covering the strife in the southern Philippines also believed their phones were bugged and that authorities were listening to their interview with rebel leaders.
Last week, Hermogenes Esperon, the presidential peace adviser, said the government will longer sign the ancestral domain deal, although, it will still continue negotiating peace with the rebels.
“We will not sign the memorandum of agreement on the ancestral domain, but will continue with further negotiations with the MILF to arrive at final peace deal,” he said.
The MILF said it will not anymore revisit or renegotiate the homeland agreement because peace negotiators have already initialed the deal. “It is already a done deal and we have been saying this all the time. We will not revisit or renegotiate the agreement on the ancestral domain,” Eid Kabalu, another senior MILF leader, said.
Kabalu said they are waiting for the government to send them a formal letter saying that the ancestral domain deal has been scrapped. “We are waiting for the formal communication that the ancestral domain deal has been scrapped so we can decide on what steps to take, whether to continue the peace talks or not,” he said.
He said the MILF will not abandon its fight for self-determination. “Our right to self-determination is non-negotiable,” he said.
Last year, peace talks nearly collapsed after Manila reneged on the same deal.
Government peace negotiators and Arroyo's political allies have earlier proposed to amend the Constitution to change the system of government from presidential to parliamentary or federalism to allow the MILF to have a separate state.
Militant groups and political activists have repeatedly accused Arroyo of using the peace talks with the MILF to amend the Constitution and eventually prolong her to stay into power.
Under the presidential form of government, Arroyo is allowed only one six-year term. In the charter change proposal suggested by her political allies who dominate Congress, she can be elected as prime minister should Congress dissolve the Senate and change the system of government to parliamentary and eventually prolong her into power beyond 2010.
Arroyo deposed President Joseph Estrada in a people power revolution in 2001, but corruption scandals in her government and allegations of poll fraud in 2004 has made her extremely unpopular among many Filipinos. (Mindanao Examiner)
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