Malaysia may still broker peace talks

Malaysia is eyeing to continue its role as a peace broker between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said yesterday.

Malaysia used to head the International Monitoring Team (IMT) but pulled out its ceasefire monitors last November due to the slow pace of the peace process.

Aside from Malaysia, Brunei, Libya and Japan are also represented in the IMT.

“(Malaysia) could be a one-country facilitator or (part of) a group of countries that would form the facilitator team,” Esperon said.

The government’s chief peace negotiator, Rafael Seguis, said he would fly to Kuala Lumpur next week to inform the Malaysian government that Manila was ready to sit down with the MILF again for “exploratory talks.”

Esperon, meanwhile, reiterated that “disarmament, demobilization and reintegration” will be the guiding framework of the government in pursuing talks with the MILF.

The government is “currently assembling the pieces” for the resumption of the peace negotiations with the MILF within the first quarter, Esperon said last Thursday during the opening of the two-day dialogue participated in by peace partners involved in the Conflict Prevention and Peace-building Program, at Astoria Plaza in Pasig City.

The program is a joint initiative of the Philippine government and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to bring peace to Mindanao.

The government has invited three British experts who shared their experience in resolving the bloody conflict in Northern Ireland in 1998.

The three were Jonathan Powell, chief of staff of former British prime minister Tony Blair; Gerry Kelly, a member of the Northern Ireland Parliament; and Robert Hannigan, Blair’s former security adviser.

Peace talks with the MILF bogged down as three of its commanders launched attacks on civilian communities in Lanao del Norte, North Cotabato and Sarangani last August after the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional the proposed agreement on ancestral domain between the government and the front.