"The peace process (with the MILF) is well in place, though we are still awaiting from the Malaysian government the actual date. We are very hopeful,though, that this will take place sometime this month," Secretary Teresita Deles, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s adviser on the peace process, told Manila Bulletin yesterday.
She said the commitment of both parties to achieve a final peace accord is growing deeper and deeper.
MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu has maintained the rebel group’s readiness and willingness in solving peacefully the strife in Mindanao.
"Our group’s commitment to a peaceful solution has not diminished. We are always ready to meet the government in the negotiating table," said Kabalu
Among others, Deles noted the assistance of the MILF in freeing some hostages recently and the government’s invitation to rebel leaders to observe the United States-Philippine training exercise in North Cotabato, and a scheduled verification of Mount Cararao in the mountains of Lanao del Sur to see if there are Jemaah Islamiyyah members holding camp in the area.
The OPAPP chief cited the completion of confidence building measures such as the redeployment of military troops from the Buliok Complex, the former stronghold of the MILF straddling North Cotabato and Maguindanao provinces.
Before agreeing to the talk’s resumption, the MILF also asked for the deployment of the International Monitoring Team (IMT) to observe the the year-old cease-fire while the negotiation is ongoing and the dropping of criminal charges against MILF leaders.
Deles said for the IMT — local monitoring centers were aready set up — both sides are only waiting for the finalization of the terms of reference (TR) as the government work solving the criminal cases.
"We are working and we hope this can be solved within the next days," she said, referring to the process in the judicial process.
"In the meantime, we are very happy with what is happening in our joint Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities, (where) all the issues are being discussed. We are confident that we can keep this level of security that is needed for the peace process to prosper," said Deles after a conulstation Thursday with Muslim leaders a the Anabel’s Restaurant in Quezon City.
"We hope there is no more turning back," she said.
Saying the accusation that the MILF recently got arms shipment would not affect the peace process, Deles added that the government was also readying for the last item in the peace talk agenda, which is ancestral domain.
MILF peace panel chairman Mohagher Iqbal said the claim on the arms shipment "is a total lie and pigment of the imagination."
Iqbal said it is good if it was true because the Bangsamoro people would then have more arms defend themselves because the Mindanao problem is still unresolved.
Government and MILF negotiators signed in Tripoli, Libya, in June 2001 an agreement on peace with three aspects — security, reconstruction and rehabilitation, and ancestral domain.
