Palace: No preconditions in resumption of talks with MILF

The Philippine government is ready to resume peace talks without preconditions with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) after the Ramadan, Palace spokesman Edwin Lacierda said Tuesday. Lacierda said the government hopes the MILF, which has expressed disapproval over the continued stay of US troops in Mindanao, will not set preconditions before it returns to the negotiating table. "Sabi po ng Pangulo magsisimula tayo ng peace process pagkatapos ng Ramadan. Wala po kaming preconditions, sana naman wag nilang gawing precondition yung sinasabi nilang US presence sa [Mindanao] (The president said peace talks will resume after the Ramadan. We don't have preconditions, so we hope they won't use as a precondition the removal of US troops in Mindanao)," he said at a press briefing. MILF chairman Ibrahim Murad was recently quoted in reports as saying that the presence of US soldiers in Mindanao only complicates the situation in the conflict-ridden region. In his first State of the Nation Address (SONA), President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III said peace negotiations with the MILF can resume after the Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting which begins on August 11 and ends on September 9. University of the Philippines College of Law dean Marvic Leonen, an expert on ancestral domain issues, has been designated to head the government panel that will negotiate with the MILF. Other members of the panel have yet to be named. Lacierda said he will leave it up to Peace Adviser Teresita Deles to decide whether to retain Malaysia as a third-party facilitator in the peace talks. Talks started 1997 The Philippine government has been holding talks with the MILF since 1997, during the time of former President Fidel Ramos. During the short-lived Estrada administration, talks were virtually non-existent as the government waged an all-out war campaign against the secessionist group, resulting in the seizure of major and satellite camps of the MILF across Central Mindanao. Talks resumed during the Arroyo administration, but peace efforts were jeopardized in late 2008 when the Supreme Court barred the signing — and eventually ruled as unconstitutional — of a memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain between the government and the MILF expanding the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. The junking of the MOA-AD triggered violent acts from a faction of the MILF. Subsequent discussions between the government and the Moro secessionists, however, resulted in an agreement to continue talks under the next administration. — Jam Sisante/RSJ/KBK, GMANews.TV