Manila: The government lead negotiator in talks with Moro rebels said the first quarter of 2012 was the most opportune time to seal a political settlement as representatives from both sides met again in Malaysia.
"The golden opportunity to craft an agreement is the first quarter of this year," Government of the Philippines (GPH) chief negotiator Marvic Leonen said, while in the same breath saying "this is an administration that wants to see the solution to the Bangsamoro question in motion when it leaves in a little over four years time."
Negotiators from the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) gathered on Monday to hold the 24th formal exploratory talks in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.
The government side is brimming with optimism as ever.
Leonen called on the MILF to "meet the challenge of crafting an agreement soon enough, so that it can be implemented and then assessed and then adjusted before the term of the next President of the Republic."
It can be recalled that President Benigno Aquino III, upon formal assumption to office in June 2010, had said peace with rebel groups would be given high priority.
Despite more than a decade of negotiations and three presidential administrations, the government and the MILF have yet to leap beyond securing the 10-year-old ceasefire and take on the more tangible aspects of peacemaking, such as securing a bigger role for the Moros, indigenous people and other stakeholders in the future of Mindanao's Muslim areas.
Malaysian facilitator Tengku Dato Ab Gaffar Tengku Mohammad like Leonen, also expressed optimism that both parties would be able to come to an agreement.
"I hope that the coming of the new year will move into the conclusion of this negotiation to a final solution to the Bangsamoro problem," he said.
Prior to the meeting in Malaysia, MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal said: "We will detail the powers, the basic powers, basic elements of a sub-state."
Leonen, in his opening statement on Monday, said the Philippines will "no doubt benefit with a region for Bangsamoro peoples that is not only genuinely autonomous but also one where the principles of good and effective governance is in place."
