The government is eyeing the resumption of the peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) between now and next month.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita Friday said President Arroyo ordered government troops to halt offensives against the Muslim separatist rebels precisely to show the government’s sincerity in reviving the stalled negotiations with the group.

Ermita said they expect the MILF to respond positively to the suspension of offensive military operations (SOMO), which was declared despite the existence of 2003 ceasefire pact between the two parties.

“Between now and the end of August, it could very well start,” Ermita told reporters, when asked about the date of the resumption of the GRP-MILF peace talks, which are likely be held in Kuala Lumpur.

Although the ceasefire between the government and the major forces of the MILF is still holding, Ermita explained the SOMO was necessary “to show goodwill on the part of government especially the President on our sincere effort to pursue the peace process in Mindanao.”

“We took this unilateral action and we are waiting for the official announcement by the leadership of the MILF. I think they will respond positively,” he added.

Ermita said the government negotiators have been directed to follow the President’s policy of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) when it resumes talks with the MILF rebels.

If the MILF leadership asks the government to stop offensives against rogue commanders responsible for the attacks in civilian communities in Central Mindanao last year, Ermita said they would have to rebuff such request, saying the perpetrators of the atrocities must be brought to justice.

Any agreement that will be forged by the government with the MILF should also abide by the Constitution and should not violate the country’s sovereignty, according to Ermita.

After the Supreme Court stopped the signing of an ancestral domain deal, Ermita said the group’s clamor for an expanded Muslim territory in Mindanao would have to pass through Congress as an ordinary legislation.

Ermita said the President remains optimistic that the government could forge a peace settlement with the MILF, which has been waging a separatist rebellion in Mindanao, before her tenure is up next year. The termination of hostilities with the MILF and the communist rebels is one of the 10 point legacy agenda of the President she intends to achieve by 2010.

“From day one of her administration, the President’s first pronouncement was to continue the peace process started by then President Ramos. It is the aspiration of the national leadership that towards the end of her term that we will achieve peace in Mindanao and all over the Philippines,” he said.

Peace talks collapsed last year the Supreme Court ruled against the memorandum agreement on ancestral domain that would have paved the creation of Muslim homeland in the south. A rogue faction of the MILF launched attacks in several provinces in Mindanao in protest of the SC ruling, triggering a counteroffensive by government troops.