Manila Times

ZAMBOANGA CITY: Philippine peace negotiators and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels reached an agreement late Wednesday on the issue of ancestral domain, a breakthrough in the seven-year-old peace talks aimed at putting an end to more than four decades of bloody fighting in southern Mindanao.

Philippine peace adviser Secretary Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said both panels agreed on the deal at the end of the meeting in Malaysia, which is brokering the negotiations.

“The issue on the ancestral domain is finally settled and we now go to the final peace talks where all previous agreements will be formally signed. We have informed President Gloria Arroyo about the progress of the talks and she is very elated,” Esperon told The Manila Times.

The MILF earlier in the day said the issue on the ancestral domain must be resolved immediately. It warned that it will not sign any peace deal with the Arroyo government unless its demand for self-determination is granted.

Peace talks were stalled in September last year after both sides failed to sign any agreement on the most contentious issue—ancestral domain—which refers to the rebel demand for territory that will constitute a Muslim homeland.

Ancestral domain is seen as the single most important issue in the peace negotiations before the rebel group can reach a political settlement with the Philippine government.

The ancestral domain covers the whole of the Muslim autonomous region and other areas in Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani provinces where there are large communities of Muslims and indigenous tribes. It also covers Palawan province in central Philippines.

Eid Kabalu, an MILF leader, said they are optimistic that the talks would lead to a peaceful solution to the Muslim secessionist problems in Mindanao.

“We have repeatedly said that we are for a peaceful solution of the problems in Mindanao. We have opened the door in order for the talks to push through and for both sides to arrive at a viable formula that will benefit us all, all for peace in Mindanao,” he said during a separate interview.

“We have been longing for the realizations and conclusion on the talks on ancestral domain and peace can now take off in our homeland,” Kabalu added.

Esperon largely credited the success of the talks to the efforts of the President to bring about peace in southern Philippines and the government and MILF peace panels, including the Cabinet and the Armed Forces of the Philippines for their support to the peace process.

“The President really worked hard for the peace talks to succeed and so did our soldiers who supported the primacy of the peace process,” he said, adding the peace panels would set a date for the formal signing of the agreement on the ancestral domain.

The agreement was reached more than a month after Mrs. Arroyo appointed Esperon as peace adviser replacing Jesus Dureza, now the Press Secretary. Esperon, a former military chief, last month vowed to pursue the peace talks with the MILF and sign a peace deal before the President’s term ends in 2010.

Mrs. Arroyo opened peace talks with the MILF, the country’s largest Muslim rebel group, in 2001, but there have been no major agreements to end the insurgency in the troubled region, except for a ceasefire accord.

But despite the truce, sporadic fighting between rebels and soldiers still continue in Mindanao with both sides accusing each other of violating the accord. In July last year, rebel forces killed 14 soldiers in a fierce battle on Basilan Island after security forces encroached inside an MILF stronghold while pursuing Abu Sayyaf militants tied to al-Qaeda.

The MILF is fighting for the establishment of a strict Islamic state in Mindanao, whose 16 million population include about 4 million Muslims.

Manila previously offered the MILF the Muslim autonomous region, which is composed of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi which are among the poorest in the country and torn by strife and clan wars since its creation in 1989. The MILF flatly rejected the offer and insisted on self-determination.

Within the Constitution

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said MILF should see the pledges are restrained by limitations imposed by the Constitution.

At present, he added, the government “can’t do much” about the apparent commitments. “But we promise to consider their demands once the debate on changes in the Constitution starts,” Ermita said.

Besides, he added, the informal talks in Malaysia are “doing well.”

Malaysia, which was brokering the peace talks in 2007, early this year pulled out from Mindanao about two dozen ceasefire observers. It cited the allegedly slow pace of the negotiations and blamed Manila for it.

Terrorist groups

Manila has accused MILF of coddling Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiah militants, who allegedly were behind spates of bombings and kidnappings in Mindanao, which the rebels denied.

The Jemaah Islamiah is Southeast Asia-based and linked to al-Qaeda. The Abu Sayyaf is a Muslim extremist group that was said to have broken away from MILF. The two radical groups are listed as foreign terrorist organizations by the US State Department.

The Malaysian truce observers deployed with the International Monitoring Team in southern Philippines had returned home and a small team is also expected to follow next month.

MILF had also warned the government that the pullout of the Malaysian observers would put the peace talks in jeopardy because of the Philippine military’s alleged violations of the truce agreement. Security officials denied the accusation and said rebels were attacking government troops without provocation.

It had called on its fighters to prepare for a “long struggle for freedom and right of self-determination,” pointing to continuing clashes with soldiers.

“The central leadership of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front has called on its members throughout Mindanao and Sulu to prepare for a long struggle for freedom and right of self-determination of the Bangsamoro people,” the rebel group said.

– Al Jacinto and Angelo S. Samonte