‘More peaceful days’ ahead seen in South

COTABATO CITY — Mindanao leaders are certain of "more peaceful days" on the island with the presence of a new batch of monitors from Malaysia to help enforce the ongoing ceasefire between the government and the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

A replacement of the international monitoring team (IMT) arrived in Manila last Thursday to continue the task of ensuring the cordiality of the government-MILF peace talks.

Malaysia is a member of the Ministerial Committee of the Eight of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), which is helping broker a peaceful solution to the MILF secessionist movement in the South.

"We are thankful for the coming of the new batch of IMT members to pursue the delicate role of ensuring tranquility in Mindanao while the talks are underway," said Presidential Assistant for Mindanao Jesus Dureza.

Rene Sarmiento, presidential adviser on the peace process, welcomed the new Malaysian monitors at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, along with his MILF counterparts.

Sarmiento said the arrival of the new IMT batch augurs well for the government’s efforts to forge a peace agreement with the MILF by the end of the year or in the first quarter of 2006.

He said the government peace panel, which is finalizing details on the resumption of peace talks next month or early October, is ready to return to the negotiating table once the schedule is set.

"There is also encouragement from Malaysia, which agreed to extend the stay of ceasefire observers in Mindanao to one year," he said.

"This is a surge of confidence in the peace process and I think they are also optimistic that an agreement will be signed," he added.

The peace talks between the government and the MILF started on Jan. 7, 1997, and the only remaining issue being threshed out by the negotiators is ancestral domain.

The issue encompasses Islamic principles of Moro communities, their aspirations to exist as a self-governing group, and their direct involvement in governance as a means of protecting their lands and preserving their ethnic and religious identity.

The first IMT batch arrived in Mindanao in August last year and has since been actively helping oversee the government-MILF ceasefire.

The newly elected governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Datu Zaldy Ampatuan, said his administration, which will start functioning officially on Sept. 30, will support the ceasefire monitoring activities of the IMT by directing all local governments in the ARMM to help the group move around areas where government and MILF forces are scattered.

"I will also encourage (the members of the) ARMM Regional Legislative Assembly to enact laws that can help accelerate the peace talks," said the 39-year-old Ampatuan, who ran for governor as the official candidate of the Lakas-Muslim, Christian Democrats (Lakas-CMD).

Members of the Catholic community in Central Mindanao are also optimistic of better days ahead now that the Malaysian government has deployed a new batch of IMT observers in the South.

The first IMT batch, led by Malaysian Army Gen. Dato Zulkifeli, is staying until October.

Oblate missionary Edgardo Tanud-tanud, president of the Notre Dame University here, has called on all of their congregation’s broadcast outfits in Central Mindanao and the Catholic Mindanao Cross, a local weekly newspaper, to cover extensively the activities of the IMT as part of the media network’s advocacy for a peaceful settlement of the Mindanao conflict.

More than a dozen Oblate missionaries, among them Fr. Bert Layson, parish priest of Pikit, North Cotabato, are actively involved in peace-building programs complementing the confidence-building measures of the government and MILF peace panels.