RP, MILF to begin drafting interim peace pact in May

The government and the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) will begin crafting their interim peace compact next month, leaders of the negotiating panels said. In a joint statement signed Wednesday, government panel chairman Ambassador Rafael Seguis and MILF counterpart Mohagher Iqbal said they have formally exchanged their draft proposals on various issues that would be the basis of the comprehensive peace pact they would ultimately create. "The parties formally exchanged amended draft proposals and matrices, discussed their proposals and agreed on areas of common ground, subject to endorsements by the panels to their respective principals. This would be the basis of crafting the interim document in early May 2010," it said. During the two-day session in Malaysia presided over by third-party facilitator Datuk Othman Bin Abd Razak, the two panels agreed to work on the "swift return" of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in conflict-ridden areas in Mindanao with the assistance of the International Monitoring Team, concerned agencies, and civil society groups. They also discussed the implementing guidelines of the project on the clearing of landmines and unexploded ordnance in conflict areas. The parties agreed to provide technical and administrative resources for the Bangsamoro Leadership and Management Institute so it could "fulfill its role as building center for emerging Bangsamoro leaders and professionals," the statement read. Operational support arrangements for the Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities and the Ad Hoc Joint Action Group will also be enhanced. Talks between the government and the MILF resumed Dec. 8, 2009. Peace talks between the government and the MILF bogged down in 2008 after a faction of the rebel group attacked civilian communities in Central Mindanao. The attacks were led by MILF commanders disgruntled with the Supreme Court decision junking the memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain (MOA-AD) between the two parties for being unconstitutional. The MOA-AD, which was supposed to be signed in Kuala Lumpur, would have paved the way for the creation of a Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE), which under the agreement is empowered to set up its own security, trade, education, elections, and the right to explore and develop natural resources in its territory. — RSJ/LBG, GMANews.TV