Interim deal looks unlikely as rebels accuse government of changing tack

Manila: The proposed interim agreement between the Philippine government and a formerly separatist Filipino-Muslim group based in the south is now unlikely, a rebel leader said.

"The signing of an interim agreement between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the administration of President Gloria Arroyo is not feasible," an MILF leader told Luwaran, the MILF website.

"Time is ticking away but the Philippine government continues to hang on and insist on a framework that the two [negotiating] parties have never discussed or agreed on since the start of their [peace] talks in 1997," said the MILF leader who refused to be named.

"The government has not changed [the draft of its proposed interim agreement] and the government did not require another draft from us," he said.

The MILF is complaining about the government's alleged "turn-about" approach in the implementation of its old proposal to expand an existing autonomous area for Filipino-Muslims where they can exercise enhanced autonomy.

The draft of the government's proposed interim agreement has insisted on the Philippine Constitution as the basis of making possible the expansion of the Moro homeland in the south, the MILF leader said.

This means the executive branch of government which is negotiating with the MILF has decided to wait for lawmakers in Congress to pass a bill for the expansion of the autonomous region for Filipino-Muslims, he said.

The rebel leader said this was an "inside the box" approach to forging a peace settlement with the MILF on a major issue. He added that this kind of an interim peace agreement did not sit well with the MILF.

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He said the MILF's chief peace negotiator, Mohagher Iqbal, will soon communicate with Datuk Othman Bin Abdul Razzaq, the Malaysian peace broker of the government-MILF peace talks, about the MILF's position on the government's proposed interim agreement.

"I cannot divulge it [the MILF's stand]," he said, adding that the MILF's central leadership had reached a position after a thorough discussion involving all MILF leaders on the government's draft on the interim agreement.