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By Al Jacinto, Correspondent
Philippine peace negotiators and
Muslim rebels agreed to resume formal talks after both sides reached
a deal on ancestral domain.
The government panel late Sunday
rushed to make a deal with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)
and promised the separatist insurgents a plebiscite for a Muslim
homeland in southern Mindanao ahead of President Gloria Arroyo’s
State of the Nation Address.
“The signing of the agreement
on the ancestral domain is a breakthrough alright, but we still
don’t know what is ahead, not until the peace agreement is finally
signed. It is really very difficult to say with how the talks are
going on,” Eid Kabalu, a senior MILF leader, told The Manila Times
on Monday.
“We hope the talks would
succeed so peace may reign in Mindanao,” he said.
President Arroyo’s peace
adviser, Hermogenes Esperon Jr., said there is need to amend the
Constitution to allow the referendum in areas under the ancestral
domain that would make up the so-called Bangsamoro Juridical
Entity.
Mohagher Iqbal, chief MILF peace
negotiator, said both sides had agreed on the issue of the ancestral
domain and formal signing on it was set next month in Malaysia where
they held the talks at the weekend.
“We have already initialed the
Memorandum of Agreement on the Ancestral Domain at ten p.m. tonight
[Sunday]. There will be formal signing (of it) in August. The
document is secured from further discussion,” Iqbal added.
Rebel leaders have accused the
government of reneging on previous agreements on the Muslim
ancestral domain that led to the collapse of the peace talks on
Friday. Manila’s peace negotiators led by Rodolfo Garcia tried to
change an earlier deal on the ancestral domain that led to the
bogging down of the talks, Iqbal said.
Esperon flew to Malaysia on
Sunday to restart the stalled talks and eventually agreed to the
rebel demand for a separate Islamic homeland in Mindanao.
The MILF also wanted the August
11 elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM)
postponed until after the peace agreement is signed. The autonomous
region groups Basilan, Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Sulu and
Tawi-Tawi provinces.
ARMM is included in the ancestral
domain, including some areas in Zamboanga Peninsula, North Cotabato,
Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani provinces in Mindanao where there are
large communities of Muslims and indigenous tribes. Such domain also
covers Palawan province in western Philippines.
The formal signing of the
agreement on the ancestral domain was originally set for August 5.
Mrs. Arroyo has supported the proposal to postpone the ARMM polls
for the peace talks to succeed.
Iqbal said the formal signing
would be held in Malaysia with Esperon, Garcia and Secretary
Norberto Gonzales, presidential security adviser.
The MILF previously said it will
not sign any peace deal with the government unless its demand for
self-determination is granted. Last year, the peace talks were also
stalled after the government negotiators reneged on the same deal.
Mrs. Arroyo opened peace talks
with the MILF in 2001 after deposing then President Joseph Estrada.
Despite the peace talks, sporadic fighting between rebels and
soldiers still continue in Mindanao, with both sides accusing each
other of violating a fragile ceasefire.
The MILF is fighting for the
establishment of a strict Islamic state in Mindanao, whose more than
18 million people include about four million Muslims.
The government also previously
offered the MILF the whole of the Muslim autonomous region, 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. But the peace negotiators
earlier this month signed an agreement in Kuala Lumpur that will
empower the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity to build, develop and
maintain its own civil-service, electoral, financial and banking,
educational, legislative, legal, economic, police and
internal-security, judicial and correctional agencies. The rebel
group said these institutions are necessary for developing a
progressive Muslim society.
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