MILF names new peace panel chief

DAVAO CITY — Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chairman Al Haj Murad has been replaced as chief rebel peace negotiator.

The peace panel is now headed by Mohager Iqbal, a member of the MILF central committee and former rebel information officer.

"Iqbal is now our chief negotiator," said MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu. "Actually, he has been chosen as such for a time already. But the announcement has been held in abeyance because of certain circumstances."

Kabalu said the appointment of Iqbal was not immediately announced because they were waiting for the result of the meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

"We are just awaiting what would come out of the OIC meeting, and if they would set the schedule of the resumption of the peace talks, we are ready," he said.

He hopes peace talks between the government and the MILF would resume soon, he added.

The central committee has reportedly replaced Murad as chief peace negotiator because he is already MILF chairman.

Teresa Deles, presidential adviser on the peace process, said the government is bent on forging a peace agreement with the MILF before President Arroyo’s term ends next year.

"We are in a hurry for the signing of a peace agreement with the MILF because we wanted that the implementing structures would be properly placed and the actual implementation would be smooth," she said.

The government has learned from mistakes in the peace agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front in 1996, she added. –Edith Regalado