"We are committed to our best effort to strike a deal by the first quarter or the middle of next year. We are already hitting the final stages of the peace talks," Secretary Silvestre Afable Jr., government peace panel chairman, said.
Afable spoke after attending the annual military assessment conference at the Armed Forces Southern Command (Southcom) headquarters here.
He said the final stages are "difficult," citing the ancestral domain issues that drew strong opposition from local government leaders when they learned that the rebels want areas the MILF claims to be ancestral lands integrated in a Bangsamoro homeland.
Afable said the two sides have not discussed issues like the formation of a regional security force reportedly being floated by some alleged recruiters from the MILF to entice new members.
Meanwhile, Afable said he supports the action of Southcom chief Lt. Gen. Edilberto Adan against any violation of the ceasefire between the government and the MILF.
General Adan "knows very well how to conduct the mission," he said.
Afable said during the meeting Adan submitted documents containing charges against the MILF recruitment and training of new members in violation of the ceasefire truce.
"We will bring this to the attention of the ceasefire committee and to the IMT (international monitoring team) all the reported violations of the ceasefire," he said.
Adan said the MILF has recruited more than 4,000 guerrillas this year alone.
He has instructed military ground commanders to conduct operations to disrupt any training and recruitment by the MILF, he added.
Afable assured Mayor Celso Lobregat that Zamboanga City would be included in the demands of the MILF.
"He should not be too concerned about the inclusion of Zamboanga City," Afable said. "It’s a commitment. I would like to state on record that no place or territory or any area in Mindanao has been touched upon in our exploratory talk."
In the MILF’s position paper attached in the interim accord signed last September, the MILF claimed that the government-MILF technical working group had agreed in principle to the creation of a Bangsamoro homeland.
Under the proposal, Zamboanga Peninsula, Sarangani, Davao Region, the Agusan provinces, Bukidnon, the Lanao provinces, and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao would form the core of the proposed state. — Roel Pareño