Moro rebels ready for peace talks

Manila: A rebel leader in the south Philippines said that peace talks with the government will resume in September, with another rebel leader saying the talks could be held any time from now to fast-track the signing of a peace deal with the President Benigno Aquino.

"The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is prepared to start holding peace talks tomorrow, anytime. But the Philippine government has not yet completed its list of five negotiators," Mohaqher Iqbal told Gulf News in a phone interview.

"Our peace panel was deactivated, but the MILF central committee can activate it anytime, complete with five peace negotiators," said Iqbal.

"That's how sincere we are in pushing for the resumption of the peace talks with the government."

He refused to confirm if he will remain MILF's lead negotiator.

Early this month, the government appointed Leonen Marvic, dean of the University of the Philippines College of law; Cenen Bacani, and Miriam Coronel as peace negotiators.

"I hope the Philippine government finalises its list of negotiators so that the peace panel could contact the facilitator of the talks in Malaysia, for the resumption of the exploratory talks between the Philippine government and the MILF," said Iqbal.

"It's hard to say whether we are optimistic or not about the results of the coming peace talks," he added.

"The success of the resumption of the exploratory and peace talks depends in the problem-solving process to be undertaken by the Aquino administration."

Iqbal said nothing would happen if the parties continued to go round in circles.

He added that the government and the MILF had a wide leeway in solving the contentious issue of the botched land deal that was supposed to give Filipino Muslims enhanced self-governance in a wider autonomous area in the south.

"Former peace panel members of both parties have initialed the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain, including the consensus points," said Iqbal.

Consensus points

"All we have to do is to reframe the consensus points as basis of the continuation of the talks."

Last August 2008, the Supreme Court prevented both parties from signing the proposed land deal, saying it was unconstitutional to allow the expansion of an existing autonomous area in the south.

This prompted three renegade MILF commanders to attack civilian communities, killing 400 people, displacing some 700,000 residents in the south, and resulting in the resumption of clashes between government soldiers and rebels.

Earlier, MILF chief Murad Ebrahim told the Inquirer that peace talks under the Aquino administration scheduled for September seemed to look like a "counter-insurgency tool".

"The military always says it is ready to crush our struggle. If we are ready for peace, we are also ready for war," Ebrahim warned. He, however, added that he supports the peace talks.

"We really want to finish this insurgency in our lifetime because the next generation of fighters are more radical," Ebrahim told foreign correspondents in an MILF camp near Cotabato City in the south.