MAGUINDANAO (Mindanao Examiner / 16 Jun) – The Philippines on Saturday appointed a Roman Catholic priest as chief peace negotiator with the country’s largest Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
Fr Eliseo Mercado, Jr., OMI, replaced Secy. Sylvestre Afable as the head of the government peace panel.
Presidential peace adviser Jesus Dureza said the priest is an experienced peace builder in Mindanao. “There will be a seamless transition in the changing of the guard in the GRP peace panel,” Dureza, who once headed the government peace panel, said.
"The assumption of Fr Mercado as the new panel chair will ensure a seamless transition and a continuity in the efforts to move forward the peace process,” he told reporters.
Afable’s resignation came barely a day after President Gloria Arroyo asked all her Cabinet leaders to tender their resignation in an apparent revamp.
There was no immediate statement from Mercado, who is now based in the Vatican and suffers from a heart disease.
Rebel leaders said Afable’s resignation is a setback to the six-year old peace talks, but also welcomed the appointment of the priest, who heads several peace organizations in Mindanao.
Malaysia is brokering the peace talks, but negotiations ended last year in Kuala Lumpur with no concrete agreement. Both sides failed to agree on the most contentious issue -- ancestral domain.
Ancestral domain refers to the rebel demand for territory that will constitute a Muslim homeland. It is the single most important issue in the peace negotiations before the rebel group can reach a political settlement.
“We welcome Fr Mercado’s appointment as chief peace negotiator and we are really hoping for an early resumption of the peace talks,” Mohagher Iqbal, chief MILF peace negotiator, told the regional newspaper, the Mindanao Examiner.
Iqbal said there is a need to resume the peace talks and tackle the issue on ancestral domain.
The ancestral domain covers the whole of Muslim autonomous region and other areas in Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani provinces where there are large communities of Muslims and indigenous tribes. And even Palawan Island in central Philippines.
Government peace negotiators previously offered the MILF the Muslim autonomous region, which is composed of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi which are among the poorest in the country torn by strife and clan wars since its creation in 1989.
The MILF rejected the offer, saying, it would not settle for anything less than total Muslim control over those areas. “Our position remains,” Iqbal said.
The Organization of Islamic Conference, which is supporting the peace talks, also sent dozens of truce observers to Mindanao. The group is composed of soldiers and policemen from Brunei, Libya and Malaysia. Japan also sent a representative to join the truce observers. (Mark Navales and Juan Magtanggol)
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