COTABATO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / July 17, 2012) – Philippine peace negotiators express optimism that it would be able to sign an accord with the country’s largest Muslim rebel group Moro Islamic Liberation Front as it resumed negotiations on Tuesday in Malaysia.
Marvic Leonen, who heads the Filipino panel, assured the MILF of the government’s sincerity in achieving just and lasting peace in Mindanao.
“We are at the door of an agreement. Let us persevere. Now is indeed the time for peace,” he said in his opening statement in Kuala Lumpur.
He said the working relationship between the Aquino government and the MILF will be founded on “trust and a general plan.”
“A general plan where there is openness to adjustments should real challenges presents themselves in the implementation, and the flexibility to assess violations of commitments in its context. The working relationship should make it truly possible for meaningful autonomy to exist,” Leonen said.
Peace negotiators have earlier agreed on the creation of a new political entity in Mindanao that would replace the existing five-province Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
“For instance, never again would it be possible for rights or powers granted under any law or norm be rendered inutile without the corresponding increase in the ability of the autonomous government to mobilize and capacitate leaders who will not only have the competence to govern but who will also approach leadership as positions of trust and stewardship.”
“Never again, would the initial stages of establishing that autonomous political entity be starved with the lack of funds; there will still be investments or national fund transfers from the national government. Eventually, there will be the ability of the new political entity to generate its own sources of revenues and this will be clearly seen,” Leonen said.
The MILF said it would not sign any peace accord unless Manila agrees on its demand for a Muslim state in Mindanao.
Last week, the MILF held a plenum in Maguindanao province where its secluded leader Murad Ebrahim spoke to hundreds of thousands of Muslims and rebel members about the slow progress of the peace talks.
But Leonen said Manila wanted to sign a peace agreement this year so that it could pursue peace and development projects in Muslim areas.
“The Aquino administration is prepared to fully invest in a harmonious working relationship between the National Government and the new autonomous political entity to enable an autonomy that is truly viable, workable and meaningful,” he said.
The MILF, a breakaway group of the larger Moro National Liberation Front which signed a peace accord with the Manila in September 1996, is fighting for self-determination. (Mindanao Examiner)
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