Resume peace talks, Guingona urges GMA

Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr. urged President Arroyo yesterday to prioritize the resumption of peace talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and not allow the government’s ongoing anti-terror campaign to derail the Mindanao peace process.

Guingona said the Arroyo administration’s relentless campaign against foreign and domestic terrorist groups such as the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and the al-Qaeda has sidelined the Mindanao peace talks.

"Let not the unverified charges of alleged terrorist training camps deter the quest for peace. The leaders of the MILF desire an honorable and meaningful peace. The majority of their members, and our Muslim brothers and sisters want the same," he told a peace advocacy forum held at the Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City.

Guingona made the call after the President said earlier this week that government troops will not hesitate to pursue JI militants in the strongholds of the MILF, despite the government’s efforts to negotiate peace with the Muslim separatist group.

Mrs. Arroyo said her government will "not allow the peace process to stand in the way of the overriding fight against terrorism" and "will not hesitate to pursue terrorists wherever they are and whenever they are pinpointed to be."

Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita said at least 31 JI members were training MILF guerrillas in bomb making at Mt. Kararaw and another location in central Mindanao, known to be MILF strongholds.

Ermita, quoting one intelligence report, said the al-Qaeda terrorist network recently gave a JI handler $15,000 for the training. JI bomb expert Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi, an Indonesian national, received and disbursed the money before he was gunned down in a shootout with government troops in North Cotabato last October.

Guingona also suggested that United States President George W. Bush should amend the condition Washington imposed on the Philippine government before granting its earlier pledge to release a financial package to help rehabilitate Mindanao.