Gov't Peace Panel to MILF: We're ready for peace talks

Davao City, Nov. 9 – The government peace panel indicated Saturday that it is anxious to resume peace negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

“We are ready as a panel but we do have some concerns regarding the process of facilitation, the pending status of which has not enabled the immediate commencement of talks,” said Miriam Coronel Ferrer, a government panel member who represented chief negotiator Mario Victor F. Leonen in the sixth Mindanao Media Summit held here.

"In any negotiation there should be a level of comfort with regards to the infrastructure for the talks that will carry us through for the long haul. This is a matter we would like to believe the other party deems equally essential to address. Less time would have passed had our current framework allowed the two parties to communicate directly with each other to sort out preliminary matters like this,” Coronel added.

Malaysia is the third country facilitator of the peace talks between the government and the MILF.

Coronel’s statement serves as a response to previous claims by the MILF that the Aquino administration is not sincere in resuming peace negotiations.

She stressed that, “the Aquino administration is seriously intent on finding a political solution to the Bangsamoro conflict, as part and parcel of its governance and security agenda.”

Earlier, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Quintos-Deles said in a speech that the “GRP Panel for peace talks with the MILF has been ready to take their place at the negotiating table since the end of Ramadan, as announced by the PNoy in his SONA.”

Meanwhile, Abhoud Syed M. Lingga, a member of the MILF peace panel, said that the MILF will observe the administration’s political will in ending the conflict, adding that, "the greatest challenge to the peace process is whether this time the President has the political will to surmount all obstacles and oppositions including well-entrenched spoilers once the peace talks starts or when an agreement will be signed."

Coronel has likewise defended chief negotiator Mario Victor F. Leonen amid talks that the latter does not have direct access to the President.

"From day one, the Chair of the Panel of the GRP along with the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process has had access to the President. More importantly, I can say--with personal knowledge--that your President is engaged, very much engaged, in this process. He seeks to understand, he listens, and strives to reconcile the competing demands on his office, " Coronel said.

Peace negotiations with the MILF were suspended in 2008 following a Supreme Court ruling that that the so-called Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain, which would give the MILF a larger area of control, was unconstitutional.

Talks were further stalled when clashes broke out in North Cotabato, Maguindanao and the two Lanao provinces in which at least 60 people were reported killed. More than 300,000 people were also displaced as a result of the clashes.#