MILF on peace process: Aquino should make the first move

Moro rebels who are talking peace with the government are wary of the incoming administration, noting that leading presidential candidate Sen. Benigno “Noynoy" Aquino III is surrounded by “spoilers of the peace process." Mohagher Iqbal, chief peace negotiator of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), said they are leaving it to Aquino to initiate moves to continue the peace process that failed to gain a significant headway during the nine-year Arroyo administration. “It depends on them. If they want to talk, let’s talk. But if they adopt a war policy, we will defend ourselves," Iqbal said in a phone interview Sunday. Iqbal, however, said there is reservation on their part since Aquino is associated with Sen. Manuel Roxas II and North Cotabato vice-governor Emmanuel Piñol, who both opposed the signing of a government-MILF territorial agreement in 2008 that could have paved the way for a final peace accord. The botched deal — the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain or MOA-AD — was deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The non-signing led to hostilities in Central Mindanao that rocked the fragile truce between government soldiers and MILF fighters. Iqbal said the Aquino government should be the one who should signify if they are still willing to pursue the peace process with the MILF because “they are the administration, they are the ones in government." “We are a revolutionary group. Normally, our way is war," said Iqbal. He, however, said that at present, the “better option for us to take is the negotiation track." Iqbal said it is “difficult to speculate" on the fate of the peace process during the Aquino administration, noting that the outgoing administration declared in 2001 that it was adopting an all-out peace policy only to be marred by military offensives in 2008. “They (Arroyo government) pronounced a policy of peace process, replacing the all-out war (of President Estrada) with an out-out peace policy but as time went by, its not purely peace policy but there was also an all-out war," he said. - KBK, GMANews.TV