MILF to skip exploratory talks with government panel

COTABATO CITY, Philippines  – The Moro Islamic Liberation Front said it is unlikely to attend the Dec. 14 exploratory talks with government as set by Malacañang since it has not received yet any written invitation, through the Malaysian facilitator for the event.

The MILF’s chief negotiator, Muhaquer Iqbal, said he has learned that his government counterpart, Marvic Leonen, personally brought an invitation to Malaysia last Dec. 2 and handed it over to Malaysian Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Richard Riot, not to Datuk Othman Bin Razak, the official facilitator of the peace talks.

Razak belong to the research department of Malaysia’s Office of the Prime Minister, which is the outfit that functions as conduit between the GRP and MILF panels.

“The invitation has not reached me still. I don’t know how it will reach me,” Iqbal told reporters in a press statement.

The government is apparently reluctant to allow Razak to continue with his facilitation of the talks due to suspicions he is bias with the MILF.

The www.mindanews.com <http://www.mindanews.com/>, a news cooperative based in Davao City, has quoted Leonen in a report as saying the urgent concerns that need to be addressed by the GRP and MILF panels are the facilitation issue and security guarantees, including the case of Eduard Guerra, also known as Abraham Yap Alonto, who was arrested on Sept. 22 at the Davao International Airport en route to Geneva, Switzerland, to attend a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Guerra is a key official of the MILF. The front’s central committee, has, in fact, asked for his release and the immediate dismissal of his having implicated in a bombing attack in Davao City several years ago.