The MILF is holding a three-day consultative assembly in Sultan Kudarat for thousands of its unarmed members and sympathizers.
The gathering is part of the MILF’s efforts to consult the Bangsamoro people on issues they believe would help solve the Mindanao problem.
"We are at the final stages of our peace efforts with the Philippine government, our people must know what we are doing for them," Ghazali Jaafar, MILF political affairs chief, said.
In a speech punctuated by chants of "Allahu Akbar" (God is great), Murad said that under a Bangsamoro government, all people, regardless of faith and race, would have "equal footing… and equal rights."
Quality education for Mindanao is one of the most sensitive agenda points being pursued by the MILF in its peace talks with the government, he added.
Tens of thousands of guerrillas and their supporters gathered around an elaborately decorated stage shouting "Allah is Great" and raised their fists in a show of force.
MILF separatist rebels opened their main training camp yesterday to foreign diplomats and vowed to hunt down militants on the government’s "most wanted" list as a sign of goodwill ahead of the peace talks.
MILF guerrillas escorted diplomats, World Bank officials and Philippine government representatives along a muddy trail to reach Camp Darapanan on the outskirts of Cotabato City.
A sea of colorful tents and umbrellas shielded Muslim men and women in colorful traditional attire as they squatted to listen to Murad speak.
Murad said it was possible to "solve seemingly irreconcilable issues as long as negotiating parties approach the table with an open mind and sincerity."
His group was "very much opposed to any form of terrorism" which was "incompatible" with their struggle to bring economic and political development to Mindanao, he added.
MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said the rebels had agreed to hunt down 53 militants as part of an agreement in 2002 to interdict or arrest terrorist elements in their areas.
"We have a list of criminal elements the government has submitted to us to be apprehended," he told reporters yesterday.
Kabalu said MILF guerrillas would either operate on their own to arrest those named on the list of wanted persons or team up with government forces.
"We have the option to operate unilaterally and then turn them over to the military," he said.
At Malacañang, President Arroyo hailed the MILF’s biggest consultative assembly in Mindanao as a great step toward achieving peace and development in the south.
"I welcome and support all peaceful, democratic and people-based consultations for peace and development," she said.
"The nation gathers its strength from the diversity of ideas and aspirations channeled into effective democratic processes and won on the negotiating table and not in the battlefield.
"These consultations will continue to support principled peace negotiations, equitable development and most of all, broader prosperity among Mindanao’s poor regardless of creed or ethnic origin," the President said.
Mrs. Arroyo said the Philippines had the full support of the Islamic world and the international community in its efforts.
"We will win the peace for the sake of all generations of Filipinos," she said.
Kabalu said foreign officials, mostly from Islamic states, as well as from the United States and Japan, had been invited to observe the consultations.
Reports said resolutions and positions adopted in the assembly would be presented at the formal peace negotiations between the government and the MILF.
MILF leaders expected some 1.5 million Muslims to attend the gathering.
Expected to attend the assembly were former Indonesian President Abdulrahman Wahid, Libyan Ambassador Salem Adem, chief government negotiator Silvestre Afable and presidential adviser on the peace process Teresita Deles.
Checkpoints manned by military, police and uniformed but unarmed MILF members were set up at all three entry points leading to Camp Darapanan, a vast field of coconut trees along the Simuay River.
Mayor Tocao Mastura of Sultan Kudarat town said a five-kilometer radius had been declared firearms-free for the gathering.
The MILF said a representative from the World Islamic Call Society would be among the speakers at the assembly which he described as "the biggest gathering" of Muslims.
Also present at the consultation, to culminate today, were Malaysian Gen. Dato Zulkifeli of the International Monitoring Team, representatives of the embassy of Brunei in Malaysia and key officials of the World Bank.
Peace talks between the government and the MILF were started by former President Fidel Ramos on June 7, 1997, but were repeatedly stalled by nagging security problems in many areas covered under the ceasefire.
Deles said the huge crowds drawn to the assembly prove the MILF’s seriousness about forging a final peace agreement with government.
"We always believe that the local stakeholders are very important in the entire peace process," she told The STAR in a phone interview.
"It is good that the MILF came up with a consultation such as this that is very much well-attended. We have never seen an assembly by whatever rebel group as big as this. Only the MILF had accomplished this."
The two-day consultation reportedly drew close to 500,000 participants who came in droves from all over Mindanao, with most of them camping out in tents spread all over the 30-hectare Camp Darapanan complex.
Deles hailed the MILF’s efforts to convene an assembly of such magnitude.
"It is not easy to bring together an assembly such as this and we really see the effort of the MILF in making this possible in relation to the peace process," she said.
Speaking on behalf of the Libyan government, Adem, a frequent visitor to Maguindanao, encouraged the MILF and the government to speed up the peace process.
Adem also appealed to members of the MILF to rally behind Murad in pursuing a negotiated settlement of the so-called Mindanao conflict. — Aurea Calica, John Unson, Edith Regalado, AFP