MANILA, Philippines — Peace panels of the Philippine government (GPH) and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are expected to thresh out “stickiest points” in a proposal to provide stronger autonomy through a Bangsamoro “sub-state” arrangement during a meeting from February 13 to 15 in Malaysia.

The three-day meeting is the 25th Session of Exploratory Meeting between the two sides, which began talks in January 1997.

Dean Marvic Leonen leads the GPH panel, while Mohagher Iqbal heads the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) panel.

Malaysia's top diplomat in the Philippines, Ambassador Dato Seri Dr. Ibrahim Saad, told the Manila Bulletin in an interview Monday that "strong political will" of the two parties is needed to sign a peace pact.

“We hope this peace process can achieve peace as soon as possible, so we can get on with the development of the Southern Philippines,” said Saad.

The peace process has been going on for too long, he said, but he believes President Benigno S. Aquino III and MILF Chairman Al-Hajji Murad Ebrahim have the necessary political will to achieve peace.

Malaysia has been facilitating the talks since 2001 and has spent hundreds of millions of pesos just for its contingent in the International Monitoring Team (IMT), monitoring and helping maintain the ceasefire.

The Muslim country's expenses for its IMT members are separate from its hosting of the peace meetings.

Last January 9 to 11, the two parties squared off for the 24th meeting also in Malaysia, during which they discussed the “substantive issues” and the concept of governance and listing of reserved powers of the national government and clarified their stands on outstanding issues.

Expected in the agenda for the new meeting are transition mechanism, sharing of power, sharing of wealth, and territory, as well as the road map they have agreed for the resolution of the Bangsamoro question and the Mindanao conflict.