MILF: We’re ready to resume peace talks

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is ready to resume peace negotiations with the government any time the rebel group is called back to the negotiating table, an official said yesterday.

"We are ready and very prepared to meet our counterparts in the government negotiating panel," MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu told The STAR.

Othman Abdul Razal, adviser to Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, met with President Arroyo last Thursday to discuss the stalled talks with the MILF.

They agreed to try to speed up the government’s peace talks with the Muslim separatists being hosted by Kuala Lumpur.

"We have not received any advice yet on the fixed date but we are ready and prepared for the resumption of the peace talks," Kabalu said.

The two sides have been negotiating through "back channels" after the talks bogged down over the issue of "ancestral domain" or lands being claimed by the MILF.

A Philippine negotiating panel is expected to fly to Kuala Lumpur shortly to resume peace talks that began about two years ago with the signing of a ceasefire.

"The President concurred with Datuk Othman on the need to put the talks on a faster track and at the same time gain international support and recognition," Malacañang said in a statement.

The Arroyo administration announced last year it wanted to sign a peace treaty with the MILF as early as this year, bringing a political settlement to a decades-old rebellion being waged in the south.

Othman and Mrs. Arroyo are "very optimistic that an agreement on the issue of ancestral domain can be achieved sooner than expected and this may well lead to the final peace agreement," the statement said.

Philippine government officials have said Manila was open to the idea of sharing with the Muslims earnings from land they have claimed as part of their ancestral domain.

The land came under state control when the Philippines was colonized by Spain in the 16th century.

The two officials said they also discussed "the plausible need for widening the participation of other countries" in an international military contingent monitoring the ceasefire in parts of Mindanao where the MILF operates. Troops from Malaysia, Libya and Brunei now make up the monitoring team. — Edith Regalado