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ZAMBOANGA CITY: Philippine peace negotiators and Moro Islamic
Liberation Front (MILF) rebels reached an agreement late Wednesday
on the issue of ancestral domain, a breakthrough in the
seven-year-old peace talks aimed at putting an end to more than four
decades of bloody fighting in southern Mindanao.
Philippine peace adviser Secretary Hermogenes
Esperon Jr. said both panels agreed on the deal at the end of the
meeting in Malaysia, which is brokering the negotiations.
“The issue on the ancestral domain is finally
settled and we now go to the final peace talks where all previous
agreements will be formally signed. We have informed President
Gloria Arroyo about the progress of the talks and she is very
elated,” Esperon told The Manila Times.
The MILF earlier in the day said the issue on
the ancestral domain must be resolved immediately. It warned that it
will not sign any peace deal with the Arroyo government unless its
demand for self-determination is granted.
Peace talks were stalled in September last year
after both sides failed to sign any agreement on the most
contentious issue—ancestral domain—which refers to the rebel
demand for territory that will constitute a Muslim homeland.
Ancestral domain is seen as the single most
important issue in the peace negotiations before the rebel group can
reach a political settlement with the Philippine government.
The ancestral domain covers the whole of the
Muslim autonomous region and other areas in Zamboanga del Norte,
Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat
and Sarangani provinces where there are large communities of Muslims
and indigenous tribes. It also covers Palawan province in central
Philippines.
Eid Kabalu, an MILF leader, said they are
optimistic that the talks would lead to a peaceful solution to the
Muslim secessionist problems in Mindanao.
“We have repeatedly said that we are for a
peaceful solution of the problems in Mindanao. We have opened the
door in order for the talks to push through and for both sides to
arrive at a viable formula that will benefit us all, all for peace
in Mindanao,” he said during a separate interview.
“We have been longing for the realizations and
conclusion on the talks on ancestral domain and peace can now take
off in our homeland,” Kabalu added.
Esperon largely credited the success of the
talks to the efforts of the President to bring about peace in
southern Philippines and the government and MILF peace panels,
including the Cabinet and the Armed Forces of the Philippines for
their support to the peace process.
“The President really worked hard for the
peace talks to succeed and so did our soldiers who supported the
primacy of the peace process,” he said, adding the peace panels
would set a date for the formal signing of the agreement on the
ancestral domain.
The agreement was reached more than a month
after Mrs. Arroyo appointed Esperon as peace adviser replacing Jesus
Dureza, now the Press Secretary. Esperon, a former military chief,
last month vowed to pursue the peace talks with the MILF and sign a
peace deal before the President’s term ends in 2010.
Mrs. Arroyo opened peace talks with the MILF,
the country’s largest Muslim rebel group, in 2001, but there have
been no major agreements to end the insurgency in the troubled
region, except for a ceasefire accord.
But despite the truce, sporadic fighting between
rebels and soldiers still continue in Mindanao with both sides
accusing each other of violating the accord. In July last year,
rebel forces killed 14 soldiers in a fierce battle on Basilan Island
after security forces encroached inside an MILF stronghold while
pursuing Abu Sayyaf militants tied to al-Qaeda.
The MILF is fighting for the establishment of a
strict Islamic state in Mindanao, whose 16 million population
include about 4 million Muslims.
Manila previously offered the MILF the Muslim
autonomous region, which is composed of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao,
Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi which are among the poorest in the
country and torn by strife and clan wars since its creation in 1989.
The MILF flatly rejected the offer and insisted on
self-determination.
Within the Constitution
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said MILF
should see the pledges are restrained by limitations imposed by the
Constitution.
At present, he added, the government “can’t
do much” about the apparent commitments. “But we promise to
consider their demands once the debate on changes in the
Constitution starts,” Ermita said.
Besides, he added, the informal talks in
Malaysia are “doing well.”
Malaysia, which was brokering the peace talks in
2007, early this year pulled out from Mindanao about two dozen
ceasefire observers. It cited the allegedly slow pace of the
negotiations and blamed Manila for it.
Terrorist groups
Manila has accused MILF of coddling Abu Sayyaf
and Jemaah Islamiah militants, who allegedly were behind spates of
bombings and kidnappings in Mindanao, which the rebels denied.
The Jemaah Islamiah is Southeast Asia-based and
linked to al-Qaeda. The Abu Sayyaf is a Muslim extremist group that
was said to have broken away from MILF. The two radical groups are
listed as foreign terrorist organizations by the US State
Department.
The Malaysian truce observers deployed with the
International Monitoring Team in southern Philippines had returned
home and a small team is also expected to follow next month.
MILF had also warned the government that the
pullout of the Malaysian observers would put the peace talks in
jeopardy because of the Philippine military’s alleged violations
of the truce agreement. Security officials denied the accusation and
said rebels were attacking government troops without provocation.
It had called on its fighters to prepare for a
“long struggle for freedom and right of self-determination,”
pointing to continuing clashes with soldiers.
“The central leadership of the Moro Islamic
Liberation Front has called on its members throughout Mindanao and
Sulu to prepare for a long struggle for freedom and right of
self-determination of the Bangsamoro people,” the rebel group
said.
-- Al Jacinto and Angelo S. Samonte
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