Government and Mindanao separatists fail to sign peace deal

Manila: Government and rebel negotiators failed to sign a peace settlement, admitting that the implementation of the “contentious points” of their proposed agreement would still need amendment of laws by the Philippine Congress.

The transition period (when the points agreed by contending parties cannot yet be implemented) was “the most difficult issue” during the negotiations of the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (Milf) in Kuala Lumpur, which ended on May 31, Mohagher Iqbal, chair of the Milf peace panel, said on Luwaran, the Milf’s website.

The interim period would require “mature handling” so as not to jeopardise the gains of the long-running peace talks that began in 1997, Iqbal said.

“There is wisdom in taking time to discuss it,” he added, but did not give details.

The transition period and campaign for normalisation in war-ravaged places can be handled by ad hoc bodies and non government organisations, following a peace settlement, legal experts said.

But the interim period is also “a state of fragile peace,” said observers, adding it would mean further delay in local elections in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) if the government and the Milf fail to sign an agreement in 2013.

Congress approved the ARMM elections from 2010 to 2013 because at the time the government and the Milf began formal peace talks after they were stalled in 2008.

This was the reason why all local leaders in Mindanao attended the peace talks in Malaysia.

Observers

Five provincial governors of the ARMM such as Governors Hadji Sakur Tan of Sulu, Jum Akbar of Basilan, Mamintal Adiong Jr. of Lanao del Sur, Sadikul Sahali of Tawi-Tawi and Esmael Mangudadatu of Maguindanao, attended the peace talks as observers and consultants of the government peace panel during the discussion of self-governance and Muslim autonomy.

Meanwhile, Honourable Ali Demirci, Director of the Minorities Affairs Department of the Organisation Islamic Conference (OIC) who represented OIC Secretary General Tevetoglu Ihsanoglu, attended the government and Milf peace negotiation in Kuala Lumpur, Tengku Dato’ AB’ Gafar Bin Tengku Mohammad, the Malaysian facilitator said in Kuala Lumpur.

It was the first time for the OIC to send a representative after it was granted observer seat to the peace talks.

“This will assure a more or less regular representation of the OIC in the government-Milf meeting,” said Tengku.

All members of the International Contact Group (ICG), an observer group whose participation was approved both by the government and the Milf attended the peace talks.

Government and Milf negotiators discussed “tough issues like power-sharing, wealth-sharing, road map of the transition, and concept of normalisation,” said Luwaran.

Expansion of the existing ARMM, to be decided by a referendum in hundreds of Muslim-dominated villages near the area, would require an amendment of the Organic Law which was the basis of ARMM’s creation in 1989.

Power sharing and wealth sharing between local government units and the national government would also need an implementing law, legal experts said.

Despite achieving important gains after three days of peace talks, the government and Milf negotiators “decided not to come up with a joint statement,” said Luwaran, adding that both parties did not give explanations.

The Milf was part of the Moro National Libefration Front (MNLF), a mainstream Muslim rebel group that waged an armed-struggle that killed 150,000 people in the south in the early 1970s.

The Milf became a faction of the MNLF after the latter forged a pro-autonomy peace settlement with the government. The agreement, however, was not implemented.

The MNLF eventually forged a pro-autonomy peace settlement with the Philippine government in 1996, the reason why the ARMM expanded from four provinces to five provinces and one city as new members in a referendum in 2001.

The Milf gave up its secessionist stance when it responded to the pro-autonomy peace initiative of the Philippine government in 1997.