MANILA, Philippines — The Peace Committee of Southern Philippines of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC-PCSP) will hold consultations starting Nov. 25 in Manila with the government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) to move the peace process forward.

PCSP is the body tasked by the 57-member Islamic bloc to facilitate negotiations between the government and the MNLF, which have been in the OIC agenda since the 1970s. Indonesia heads the PCSP.

A source in the MNLF told the Manila Bulletin that Indonesian Ambassador Rezlan I. Jenie, OIC-PCSP chairman, and his delegation were flying in later this week for the consultation.

The source said he understands that OIC-PCSP plans to hold separate discussions with the government and MNLF panels.

The question has been whether the landmark 1996 Final Peace Agreement (FPA) signed by government and MNLF and which the OIC brokered has been fully implemented.

To settle the nagging issue, the OIC, through Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanuglo, called the gov-ernment, MNLF, and OIC to a meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in 2007.

The three parties met again in Istanbul, Turkey, in February 2008, in Manila in March 2009, and again in Jeddah on Feb. 22-23.

At issue is the proposed Amendatory Bill to Republic Act No. 9054, the Organic Act of the Autonomous Re-gion in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

The amendment of ARMM's Organic Act is supposed to incorporate the FPA provisions which are deemed not yet implemented by government.

Among the contentious points are sharing of strategic minerals and plebiscite for the expansion of ARMM, which MNLF wants.

To resolve the two issues, the three parties agreed during the 4th tripartite talks in Jeddah to create an Expert Working Group and Ad-Hoc High Level Group to tackle strategic minerals and plebiscite.

In the course of the tripartite talks since 2007, the government and MNLF legal panels have identified 25 common proposals and 15 common grounds, which the OIC-PCSP Secretariat converted into the Amendatory Bill.