The head of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) vowed to push for ancestral domain of the Filipino-Muslims in the south, adding the contentious issue should be resolved at the talks between the Philippine government and the Front in Malaysia next month.
The MILF wants ancestral domain in villages and communities with Muslim population in the south. These areas are found outside the existing Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), which is composed of four provinces and one city, said MILF chieftain and chief negotiator Al Haj Ebrahim Murad.
The MILF wanted autonomy for Muslims outside of the ARMM. The configuration of the latter is based on larger areas such as provinces and cities.
There are 10 million Filipino-Muslims in the south; a population as big as the number of people residing in Metro Manila. In 2003, the government sponsored a second referendum for autonomy, which resulted in the expansion of the ARMM.
The holding of the referendum was a provision of the pro-autonomy peace deal between the Philippine government and the mainstream Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in 1996.
"Ancestral domain and the solution to the Moro problem in Mindanao, will be the main agenda of the talks in Kuala Lumpur after Ramadan," said Murad. "The government and the Front have agreed to resolve the two major concerns in Malaysia," he said. The issue on ancestral domain is the last to be resolved in the talks.
Warning of a grim scenario if the government and the MILF fail to resolve the contentious issue of ancestral domain, Murad said, "More conflicts might erupt if the two major concerns in the talks will not be resolved soon."
