Government misses peace deadline with MILF, asks for another extension

Manila has asked to extend, for a second time, a deadline for a fresh initiative to revive stalled peace talks with the Philippines’ largest Muslim rebel group after failing to issue any proposals by the end of October.

The Philippine government has been talking with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) for a decade to try to end a vicious separatist conflict and the MILF said on Tuesday it would likely demand that this latest extension would "be the last."

Malacañang said yesterday it is taking steps to prevent a possible escalation of conflict between the government and the MILF in Mindanao following major clashes between separatist rebels and troops earlier this week that broke a three-year old truce and endangered the prospects for a resumption of peace talks.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the Palace was deeply concerned over reported firefight in Shariff Aguak in Maguindanao but denied that the government instigated the fighting.

Negotiations, brokered by Malaysia, have stalled since June because of differences over the size and wealth of a proposed homeland for about three million Muslims in the south of the mainly Catholic country.

The MILF said the government’s chief negotiator Silvestre Afable had asked for an extension until Nov. 15 to allow him to present a new proposal on the territory to President Arroyo. The original deadline was Sept. 30.

"In his letter, (Afable) cited the need for their draft to be presented to the President and the cabinet to seek their ‘full consensus’ on their emerging position," the MILF said in a statement on its Web site, www.luwaran.com.

Muslim rebels have accused Mrs. Arroyo of lacking sincerity to end a conflict that has killed more than 120,000 people since the late 1960s.

Analysts suspect the President, who has survived two impeachment attempts, is reluctant to agree a deal which could upset politicians loyal to her in the south and risk their chances in next May’s local and congressional elections.

The MILF wants to add more than 1,000 villages to an existing five-province Muslim autonomous region in the resource-rich south without a referendum. The government has said it must put the demand to a popular vote.

Many of the villages earmarked for membership of a Muslim homeland lie far from the existing autonomous region and are surrounded by Christian territory.

Meanwhile, Ermita said the government panel immediately sought the intervention of the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team (IMT) and the Coordinating Committees on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH) as well as the Ad-Hoc Joint Action Group (AHJAG) to stop the fighting.

"We want to ensure that the situation will not further deteriorate and secondly, there are confidence building measures being done with the help of the IMT, the CCCH and the AHJAG so that this (conflict) will not spread," Ermita said. — Paolo Romero