MILF members, with the Malaysian team of inspectors, look forward to ending the decades-old peace problem in southern Philippines

By Rexcel Sorza, IOL Correspondent

ILOILO CITY, June 10 (IslamOnline.net) – Whoever is proclaimed as President of the Philippines would not matter to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) as it would continue to talk peace with the Philippine government, one of its ranking leaders told IslamOnline.net Thursday, June 10.

Ghazali Jaafar, MILF vice chairman for political affairs, said whoever emerges as winner in the May 10 Presidential elections will not affect this policy.

He said the MILF, which is fighting to reclaim the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, would continue to pursue the peace process as the solution to the decades-long armed conflict that has claimed thousands of civilians and soldiers.

“We will deal with whoever is the President of the Philippines as long he or she is really sincere in pursuing peace with us,” Jaafar said in a statement sent to IslamOnline.net.

The official canvass being done by the Philippine Congress, which is slowed down by questions raised by the opposition, shows a tight race between President Gloria Arroyo and her strong challenger, actor Fernando Poe Jr.

It is expected to be finished sometime on the third week of the month, in time for June 30, when the winner should assume the post.

But an official quick count done by the National Movement for Free Elections of the results of the May 10 general elections showed Arroyo keeping the Presidency by two percent. She got 9,674,597 votes while Poe had 9,158,999.

Arroyo is finishing the last three years of the Presidency of Joseph Estrada, who was deposed last January 2001 by a popular uprising after he was charged with plunder. Her term ends on June 30.

Positive Peace Process

The peace process has been moving positively albeit intermittently under the Arroyo administration. Poe, on the other hand, has pledged as one of his priority agenda the lasting peace in Mindanao. He did not elaborate how he would solve the problem.

An exploratory talk was held in March in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where both parties agreed to maintain the existing cease-fire. They also set a date - last week of April - for the resumption of the formal peace talks.

However, it did not push through because the government officials involved were busy due to the general elections.

Secretary Teresita Quintos-Deles has said that the government remains committed to pursue the peace talks with the MILF but it would take place after the elections.

Malaysia, which was facilitating the peace negotiation to end the decades-old conflict, vowed to continue "to do all it can" to help the Philippines find lasting peace in Mindanao.

Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi “reiterated his strong support for our peace process. He said that Malaysia will do all it can to help us find peace in the Southern Philippines," Philippine Foreign Affairs Delia Albert told IslamOnline.net.

She said she thanked Badawi for the role that Malaysia has played in bringing peace to Southern Philippines. "He told me that much of the credit for the current success of the peace process and the development of Mindanao should be given not to anyone else but to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.”

The United States is also keen on having both parties resume the peace talks.

Eugene Martin, executive director of the United States Institute of Peace’s Philippine Facilitation Project, told IslamOnline.net in an email that they “hope that following the conclusion of the recent elections, the Philippine government and MILF will resume their negotiations toward a peace agreement and that USIP will be able to participate in furthering peace in Mindanao.”

Martin said that in the meantime, the “USIP is continuing its efforts to play a facilitating role in the peace process in Mindanao. We are sponsoring a number of projects to further interfaith dialogue and promote conflict resolution.”

U.S. Embassy charge d'affaires Joseph Mussomeli said on June 8 he hopes the peace talks would succeed for them not to include the MILF in their list of foreign terrorist organizations.

He added that was possible because there are factions within the MILF that have ties with their Jemaah Islamiyah, a group listed as that of terrorists’ by the U.S. government.

Unlawful Arrests

Meanwhile, the MILF has noted the continued warrant-less arrests against its members and sympathizers being perpetrated by Philippine authorities.

The MILF said illegal arrests greatly jeopardized the ceasefire signed by the Philippine government and MILF, in addition to the early resumption of the formal peace talks slated in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. “Any unilateral action on reports of violations is a violation of the ceasefire,” Jaafar has said.

Within the same context, he noted further, the continued linking of the MILF fighters with the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) in the media is a violation of the ceasefire.

He said this is a provocative hostile act that will tend to undermine the credibility of one party or the other and is a violation of the terms of the GRP-MILF Security Accord dated August 2001.