Gov't negotiator says talks with MILF to resume July

COTABATO CITY, Philippines  --- The government’s peace panel is optimistic  that the peace talks with Moro  Islamic Liberation Front, which has complained of the delay of the negotiations, will resume next month.

A senior member of the GPH panel negotiating with the MILF, Senen Bacani, announced over Catholic station dxMS here Thursday that both sides are now trying to fix the dates of the next round of exploratory talks in Malaysia  in July.

Bacani declined to reveal any detail on the tentative schedule for the formal talks in Malaysia in keeping with a protocol agreement that enjoins the panels  to keep confidential the dates of their exploratory meetings abroad.

The MILF has complained of the deferment of the resumption of the talks two times , first in March and  the second in April,
on the behest of President Benigno Aquino III.

The President reportedly wanted to review  the details of the remaining annexes, particularly about the wealth- and power-sharing agenda, the GPH and MILF panels are to add to the October 15, 2012 Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro (FAB).

The FAB is the basis for the creation of an enabling law to abolish the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and replace it with a more  empowered, MILF-led Bangsamoro entity.

The Malaysian facilitator of the talks, Tengku Dato Ghafar Tengku Mohamed, has separately met with the GPH and MILF panels to intervene   and settle their differing views on the wealth- and-power sharing annex be integrated with the FAB.

Ghadzali Jaafar,  MILF vice chairman for political affairs, earlier told reporters that the government is trying to introduce changes to the wealth- and power-sharing provisions.

“We shall stick to what has been agreed in previous meetings,” Jaafar said.

A former government chief negotiator, Davao City-based lawyer Jesus Dureza, said the complaints on the delay of the GPH-MILF talks should not come as a surprise.

“This is totally expected and is serving a good purpose,” Dureza, former chairman of the Mindanao Development Authority, said.

The stalemate, according to Dureza, will remind the public and all stakeholders to the GPH-MILF talks that the peace negotiation is not  a “walk in the park.”

“The annexes are still being worked out,” Dureza said.

Getting the peace talks fully done by 2016 is the “best case scenario,” according to Dureza.

Peace talks between the government and MILF started on January 7, 1997.

The Malaysian facilitator of the GPH-MILF talks came to Maguindanao last week to deliver “notes” from the government, detailing its official position on the  contentioius provisions.