Latest GPH, MILF talk ends sans communiqué

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - The three-day 34th exploratory talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Malaysia ended without a closing program and a traditional joint communiqué, sparking speculations there was impasse in the negotiations.

The Malaysian facilitator of the GPH-MILF talks, Dato Tengku Ab’ Ghaafar bin Mohamed, adjourned the session 7:30 p.m. Saturday without even announcing the date of the next round of talks.

The MILF, website, www.luwaran.net, said its peace panel did not push for a joint statement and set the date of the next round of talks.

The MILF said both sides did not have any agreement or consensus worth mentioning in a joint statement, which the two panels traditionally sign during the closing of every round of formal talks in Malaysia.

The MILF emphasized, however, that both parties have achieved “tremendous gains” on the crafting the four annexes to the Oct. 15 framework agreement on Bangsamoro - power-sharing, wealth-sharing, modalities and arrangements, and normalization.

The MILF said the power-sharing annex is now 95 percent settled while the wealth-sharing topic is 60 percent complete.

The modalities and arrangement issue is now 99 percent addressed, according to the MILF.

The MILF’s chief negotiator, Muhaquer Iqbal, was said to have warned the government panel on altering the agreed leadership set-up for the Bangsamoro Transition Authority(BTA).

The MILF wants to lead the BTA, which will oversee the setting up of a new political entity that would replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The MILF’s website has insinuated that the government wanted the “Bangsamoro,” meaning confluence of different Moro sectors, including the Moro National Liberation Front, to comprise the BTA.

Iqbal said that he does not believe that the position of the GPH panel does not reflect the stand of Malacañang on the BTA leadership issue.

A senior MILF peace panel member, Abhoud Syed Lingga, was quoted by www.luwaran.net as suggesting that there is a seeming effort to ‘reconcile’ the GPH-MNLF 1996 Final Peace Agreement and the Oct. 15, 2012 GPH-MILF Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro.