Iqbal wrote his counterpart, Secretary Rodolfo Garcia, former chairman of the government peace panel in the talks with the MILF, paying tribute to his "wonderful team."

"We will not forget you and your wonderful team and we hope that in some future time and occasion we meet and cross paths for the sake of peace and humanity," the MILF leader said.

Iqbal, Garcia, Presidential Peace Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. and Malaysian chief facilitator Datuk Othman Abdul Razak had initialed the MoA-AD and was up for signing on Aug. 5, but the Supreme Court stopped the signing with temporary restraining order because of the opposition of Christian political leaders.

On Friday evening, the government peace panel held a "farewell party" at the Dusit Thani Hotel in Makati City.

"We are now officially jobless. It is time to look for a source of bread-and-butter," said a source who asked for anonymity, just before the party at the Makati City hotel.

"I don’t know if we are celebrating or lamenting the ‘demise’ of our peace panel," the source, who was at the party, and formerly connected with the government peace team, added,

The aborted signing triggered fighting in Central Mindanao, where over 50 people were killed, scores wounded, and over 200,000 forced to evacuate.

Iqbal and other MILF leaders had slammed the Arroyo government for what they called its insincerity in settling the Bangsamoro people’s grievances.

But Iqbal, as quoted in "http://www.luwaran.com/" was generous in his accolades for Garcia’s peace panel.