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By Al Jacinto, Correspondent
ZAMBOANGA CITY: The Moro Islamic Liberation
Front (MILF) held a crucial meeting Sunday to decide the fate of the
peace talks with the Arroyo government.
A larger conflict looms in Mindanao, as the
government and the rebels stood firm on their respective negotiating
positions. The military plans to continue its offensive against the
rebels during Ramadan (see related front-page story), and the Palace
had decided not to sign a controversial agreement on ancestral
domain for the Muslims. On the other hand, the MILF is all but
poised to scuttle the peace talks, insisting that the agreement on
homeland was already a done deal.
President Gloria Arroyo, who opened peace talks
with the rebels in 2001, has already scrapped a territorial deal
with the MILF after the Supreme Court stopped its formal signing
last month in Malaysia. Some lawmakers and local government
officials opposed to the accord filed separate petitions before the
High Court, saying there were no public consultations.
The peace talks are in danger of collapsing
because of the aborted deal and the continued fighting in the
southern Philippines between military and rebel forces.
“We are having a meeting right now to assess
the peace talks with the Philippine government. The peace talks are
now in purgatory,” Mohagher Iqbal, chief MILF peace negotiator,
told The Manila Times by phone from his base in Mindanao.
Peace negotiators in July initially signed the
memorandum of agreement on the ancestral domain that would have
granted some four million Muslims their own homeland in more than
700 villages across Mindanao, whose 21-million population are mostly
Christians.
The homeland deal sparked a series of protests
from politicians and residents who were opposed to the inclusion of
their areas to the agreement that will make up the so-called
Bangsamoro Juridical Entity.
President Arroyo has shifted in the basic
premise of the government’s peace effort after hundreds of rebels
under Ameril Kato and Abdurahman Macapaar led a series of attacks in
the provinces in Mindanao that killed dozens of civilians.
Manila demanded the MILF to surrender peacefully
the two rogue commanders, now wanted by authorities, to face trial
over the killings of civilians in the provinces of North Cotabato,
Lanao del Norte, Sarangani, Sultan Kudarat and Maguindanao where
rebel forces brutally killed innocent civilians and pillaged
Christian villages.
Rebel forces launched the attacks after the
failed signing of the controversial ancestral domain agreement. The
MILF said it will not surrender the two rebel commanders and warned
Manila that an all-out war could erupt in Mindanao if the peace
talks fail and the military offensive is not halted.
“This is a long process, and the MILF
leadership will talk about the future of the peace talks with the
Arroyo government,” Iqbal said.
Iqbal also complained that his cell phones have
been bugged by the military, and that the authorities were
monitoring his conversations. “My cell phones now have become a
tracking device,” he said without elaborating.
The MILF said it would not anymore revisit or
renegotiate the homeland agreement because peace negotiators have
already initialed the deal. “It is already a done deal and we have
been saying this all the time. We will not revisit or renegotiate
the agreement on the ancestral domain,” Eid Kabalu, another senior
MILF leader, said.
Kabalu said they are waiting for the government
to send them a formal letter saying that the ancestral domain deal
has been scrapped. “We are waiting for the formal communication
that the ancestral domain deal has been scrapped so we can decide on
what steps to take, whether to continue the peace talks or not,”
he said.
He said the MILF would not abandon its fight for
self-determination, saying that “is non-negotiable.”
Last year, peace talks nearly collapsed after
Manila reneged on the same deal.
Government peace negotiators and President
Arroyo’s political allies have earlier proposed to amend the
Constitution to change the system of government from presidential to
parliamentary or federalism to allow the MILF to have a separate
state.
Palace not perturbed
Malacañang said it is not worried about the
MILF threat to pull out of the peace process, especially now that
the government has decided not to sign the agreement on a territory
for a Moro homeland.
Palace deputy spokesman Anthony Golez told The
Times Sunday that the government would stick to its current policy
of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration, or DDR, which is
part of an accord signed by both sides in the past.
“The government is adopting this policy in
dealing with the entire MILF leadership, not only to groups that
attacked villages in Mindanao. It must be disarmament first before
talks because you cannot talk peace at gunpoint,” he said.
Last week, Solicitor General Agnes Devanadera
told the Supreme Court that the government would no longer honor the
ancestral domain agreement with the MILF, which was supposed to be
signed in Malaysia on August 5.
The Arroyo government said it has decided to
review the entire peace process and consult all sections of society
in the south before sitting down with Muslim rebels to find a more
acceptable deal based on the country’s constitution.
Press Secretary Jesus Dureza said the government
remains committed to the peace process and is now centering the
talks through the conduct of dialogues with communities to persuade
rebel members to disarm.
-- With Angelo S. Samonte
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