MILF leaders tackle govt peace proposal

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)’s central committee have started discussing whether or not to accept the Philippine government’s proposal for autonomy, one of its members said Tuesday. Ghadzali Jaafar, MILF vice chairman for political affairs, said the Moro rebel group’s leaders already had "light discussions" on the government proposal in their headquarters in Maguindanao. "We in the central committee met and we were briefed by the MILF peace panel. They submitted to us the proposal of the government of the Philippines in writing and we accepted it," Jaafar said in a phone interview. Jaafar, however, refused to disclose the results of the MILF initial deliberations on the government proposal. "It is still exclusive to the central committee but we will inform the public on the position of the central committee vis-à-vis the position of the government of the Philippines," he said. Still, Jaafar said he and other MILF leaders will have to meet again to come up with the group’s final position on the proposal. "You cannot expect us, the government cannot expect the central committee to decide on the issue, on the proposal, in just one meeting. This will be followed by several meetings," he said. The MILF peace panel, chaired by Mohagher Iqbal, earlier recommended the rejection of the Philippine government’s proposal, which offered the enhancement of autonomy in Muslim Mindanao and not the Bangsamoro “substate" the group wanted. Talks between the two parties resumed last week in Malaysia weeks after President Benigno Aquino III and MILF leader Al Haj Murad met in Tokyo to discuss the group’s “substate" proposal. ‘Gov’t first rejected MILF’ Jaafar further said the Philippine government “first rejected" the MILF when it failed to answer the group’s proposal submitted last February point by point. “They [Philippine government officials] are accusing us of rejecting the government panel. We can also say that they were the first one who rejected the MILF panel, not us, because we were the ones who first submitted a proposal. They should have answered it because they had enough to study that," he said. He likewise reiterated that Bangsamoro people should be allowed to solve their own problems. "Its now time for the Philippine government to listen to the Bangsamoro leaders because this problem is a problem of the Bangsamoro people. The Bangsamoro people, the leaders of the Bangsamoro people, know better this problem," he said. In January 2010, the MILF rejected a proposal for “enhanced autonomy" from the Philippine government, then led by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The group’s peace panel also refused to show up during the talks, which only started again last February under Aquino administration. — with Andreo Calonzo/RSJ, GMA News