Gov't concluding ‘study’ on ancestral land, MILF told

MANILA, Philippines - The government is now concluding its study on ancestral domain, the contentious issue in peace talks between it and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Government peace panel chairman Rodolfo Garcia made this claim Wednesday at the launching of the Bangsamoro Management and Leadership Institute (BMLI) in Camp Darapanan in Sultan Kudarat. "At this point the study on the consensus points as part of government's exercise of due diligence is now at a point of concluding stage," Garcia said in a statement posted Thursday afternoon on the MILF website. "In due time the government negotiating peace panel will present to our principal (Malacañang) the result of the legal team study and come up with course of actions to move forward the GRP-MILF peace process," he added. The MILF had invited Garcia to grace the launching program of the BMLI, which lawyer Michael Mastura considered as "small win for the peace process but worthwhile." Earlier, the MILF blamed the "unilateral" act of the government to submit to legal team study the consensus points of ancestral domain as a "deliberate and premeditated" cause of undue delay in the peace process. On the other hand, the MILF reiterated its challenge to government to resume the exploratory talks soon before it caused the total demise of the trust and confidence of the people on the peace process. "The peace talks had turned into disarray since the government reneged on its commitment and position on the ancestral domain and has never indicated as to when the talks would resumes," it said. It added two scheduled peace talks in Malaysia did not take place despite the commitment of MILF and government to go back to negotiating table to tackle and eventually initial the memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain as the latter said it's not ready yet. For his part, MILF chief peace negotiator accepted in principle the initial financial assistance of the government offered by Garcia. But he told Garcia to channel the assistance to the Malaysian Secretariat to the peace process as matter of due observance of the procedural steps of the peace process. "We cannot accept during this launching program the mandated assistance of the government to the BMLI because direct contact or engagement between the government and MILF peace negotiators is a taboo. It must go through the Malaysian Secretariat in Kuala Lumpur," Iqbal said. "We envision the BMLI to resolve the worsening quality of Bangsamoro leadership and management," he added. European Commission Ambassador Alistair McDonald, who was also present during the launching, said that the vision-mission of BMLI is so fundamental in the pursuit good governance. McDonald pointed out that BMLI will complement significantly the total development aspirations of the Bangsamoro Development Agency (BDA). "EU stands ready to continue and intensify its support to the peace process and the BMLI in particular and will continue to encourage more support to achieve peace and the full development potential of the Bangsamoro people and Mindanao," he said. - GMANews.TV