Manila: The Moro Islamic Liberation Front said it will soon reveal its nominees for the new panel to negotiate peace with the government.

A statement published on the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s Luwaran website said the composition of the five-man Moro Islamic Liberation Front Peace Panel would soon be made public.

The new Philippine government, under President Benigno Aquino III, published the names of those who would be on its panel to negotiate peace with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front just weeks after the new president assumed the reins from President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Leading the government negotiating team in discussions with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front will be: Dean Marvic Leonen of the University of the Philippines, businessman Senen Bacani, Professor Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, and Ramon Piang Senior.

The fifth member is yet to be announced, however it has been speculated that Dr Hamid Barra, former secretary of education in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao will be given the role.

Moro Islamic Liberation Front secretariat chairperson Muhammad Ameen was quoted by the group’s website as saying that it had come up with a shortlist of possible nominees but that the line-up could not be finalised until it was taken up in a formal session. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front made its decisions by consensus, it said.

The report did not confirm if members of past negotiating panels would be called upon to represent the Front once more in the talks.

The deactivated Moro Islamic Liberation Front Peace Panel was composed of Mohagher Iqbal, chairman; lawyers: Datu Michael Mastura, Lanang Ali and Musib Buat as well as Maulana Bobby Alonto, and at times, it also included Abdullah Camlian.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front Peace Panel, which was deactivated July 1, will be on the primary agenda again when the Moro Islamic Liberation Front Central Committee convenes this September.

Although a final peace agreement may seen farfetched at the moment, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front panel, led by Iqbal, had done well in the peace negotiations under the Arroyo government.

After the respective peace panels of the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, were disbanded in July, negotiators were able to agree on minor but no less important agreements.

These included the return of so-called internally displaced peoples or refugees to their former homes in the villages of Maguindanao, Sultan Kuradat and North Cotabato, as well as the clearing of unexploded ordnance from areas where fighting took place in 2008.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front said it had been firm in its demands that these minor agreements would be honoured.

A major issue in the impending resumption of peace negotiations was the government demand that other sectors affected by the Mindanao conflict - such as the indigenous peoples – should be included in the peace process.