If the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) cannot strike a peace deal with the Arroyo regime, Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III can wrap up a final accord to end the Mindanao conflict, a Muslim leader said Monday.

“Peace stakeholders can rest assured that a government under Noynoy has a big heart for the peace process,” lawyer Paisalin Tago, former legislative speaker of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, told the Bulletin.

Tago said the pro-Mindanao peace stance of the senator from Tarlac was the “very reason” behind their formation of the Muslim Alliance for Noynoy Aquino (MANA) aimed at supporting his presidential candidacy.

He took exception to the pronouncement by Press Secretary Cerge Remonde Saturday that hopes for a final deal would be dim under a new regime, especially with the Liberal Party’s presidential team and former President Estrada.

Tago, MANA lead convenor, recalled that upon Aquino’s declaration of his presidential plan two months ago, he promptly told a group of Moro students that he preferred “talks” over “war” in resolving the Mindanao conflict.

He said such declaration inspired the formation of MANA, which he claimed to have already mustered over 150,000 members with chapters in 22 cities and 36 provinces across the country.

“Our membership is swelling fast because we believe Aquino has a big heart for what his parents, former Senator Ninoy and President Cory, began for the Muslim Filipinos,” Normallah Alonto-Lucman, another MANA convenor, said.

Ninoy had exposed in the Senate anti-Moro military efforts in a fashion that triggered the birth of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), which started the Moro struggle for self-determination, Lucman said.

Lucman, daughter of late former Lanao Sur congressman Rashid Lucman, a good friend of Ninoy, said the Moro people also credit former President Cory for enshrining in the Constitution a provision for Muslim autonomy.

Noynoy inherited his parents’ “big heart” for the Muslim Filipinos, said Dr. Ibrahim Ibay Jr., another MANA convenor and former acting governor of the defunct Shariff Kabunsuan province.

In her two-day visit in the country last week, US State Department Secretary Hillary Clinton batted for the MILF and government peace panels to strike a final accord before President Arroyo steps down in June.