COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 18, 2008) – Philippine rebels rejected government attempts to revive the collapsed peace talks unless President Gloria Arroyo honors a deal that would grant Muslims a separate homeland in the volatile region of Mindanao.
Sporadic fighting between Moro Islamic Liberation Front forces and government troops had killed and wounded hundreds of people and displaced more than half a million civilians in central Mindanao in recent months.
Fighting escalated after the aborted signing of the Muslim homeland agreement in August. The Supreme Court recently declared as unconstitutional the homeland deal initially signed in July by government and rebel peace negotiators in Malaysia, which brokered the peace talks.
The MILF said Arroyo's emissaries rushed the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on the Ancestral Domain in Kuala Lumpur so she can include it in her state of the nation address on July 28.
The controversial deal also sparked massive protests from politicians opposed to the agreement that would have granted about four million Muslims their homeland in more than 700 villages across Mindanao.
Arroyo, who opened peace negotiations with the MILF in 2001, quit from the talks after accusing the rebel group of attacking civilian areas in North Cotabato, Lanao del Norte and Sarangani provinces. She also abolished the government team negotiating with the MILF.
Mohagher Iqbal, chief MILF peace negotiator, said his group would only resume peace talks with Manila if Arroyo honors the homeland deal. “We already lost trust with the government and reviving the failed peace talks is only possible if President Arroyo honors the ancestral domain deal,” he told the Mindanao Examiner.
Iqbal said there were government attempts to resume the peace talks with the MILF, the country's largest Muslim rebel group which is fighting for nearly four decades for self-determination in Mindanao.
Arroyo previously ordered troops to hunt down MILF leaders Ameril Kato, Abdullah Macapaar and Sulayman Pangalian, who were blamed by Manila for leading the deadly attacks in the troubled, but mineral-rich region.
Government spokesmen in the past said peace talks will only resume if the MILF lay down its weapons and surrenders the three rebel commanders.
Arroyo on Saturday inspected government forces in the central Mindanao province of Maguindanao where she awarded medals to 44 soldiers involved in the operation against the MILF.
“We fully support your sacrifices for peace in Mindanao,” Arroyo told troops inside the headquarters of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division in Awang town and vowed to pursue justice for the victims of war in Mindanao.
Arroyo pledged to grant P8.75 million for the purchase of sleeping bags and mobile phone prepaid cards for some 7,000 soldiers fighting the rebels. The money was on top of the P1 million livelihood and scholarship assistance for the soldiers’ children and another P1 million pension for parents of troops who not covered by government insurance.
Her visit came barely two days after the military announced it had killed at least 13 MILF rebels during air strikes in the town of Datu Piang in Maguindanao province. (Mindanao Examiner)
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