Gov’t, MILF to resume talks ‘early July’

MANILA, Philippines (Updated) – After a stalemate on the peace talks, the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) have agreed to return to the negotiating table “early July,” government peace panel chair Miriam Coronel-Ferrer said Friday, June 21. 

“The panel chairs have already agreed on a date early next month to further discuss the annexes on wealth sharing, power sharing, and normalization,” Ferrer said in a statement. 

Ferrer made the announcement after an informal meeting with MILF chief negotiatior Mohagher Iqbal in the recently-concluded Mediator’s Forum in Oslo, Norway, which they both attended.  

During their informal meeting, Ferrer also gave Iqbal the government’s full proposal on the wealth-sharing annex to the MILF. 

Eight months after the signing of the Framework Agreement that outlined the vision for a new Bangsamoro region, the talks reached a deadlock over details on wealth-sharing and power-sharing between the regional and national government. 

Although both sides agreed to resolve the stalemate through an exchange of notes during the recent election period, the MILF has said they preferred the initial version of the wealth-sharing annex drafted by both parties in February during the 36th round of peace talks in Kuala Lumpur. 

After the last round of formal talks in April, negotiations were stalled for two months because the government asked for time to conduct “due dilligence” on the details of the wealth-sharing annex. In particular, these refer to the devolution of taxes, share in natural resources, and the system of block grants, or how the national government will allot money to the region. 

Comprehensive peace pact ‘in a month or two’

Should both sides manage to break the impasse, government peace panel member Senen Bacani said a final peace agreement with the rebel group could be signed “in a month or two.”

“We need a little patience and understanding for these delays as we have no control over the schedules of other people, but I am very hopeful that we will finish this comprehensive agreement in a month or two,” Bacani said in a radio interview. 

The peace panels have only completed one out of 4 annexes needed for the final peace pact — the annex on Transitional Arrangements and Modalities (TAM). Aside from the annexes on wealth-sharing and power-sharing, both sides still have to finish the annex on normalization, which includes sensitive issues such as policing and decommissioning. 

Delays in the talks have frustrated MILF leaders and members. In a roundtable discussion in Kuala Lumpur on June 5, MILF chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim himself warned that “every minute of delay in finishing the annexes to the [Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro] poses a threat to peace.” 

Both sides want to finish the transition towards the new Bangsamoro region before President Benigno Aquino III finishes his term in 2016. Based on the MILF’s estimates, the Transition Commission needs two years to finish drafting the basic law, which will then be approved first, by Congress and second, by the Bangsamoro people through a plebiscite. 

The Oslo event was also attended by Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Deles, Malaysian Third-Party Facilitator Tengku Datu Abdul Ghafar Tengku bin Mohamed, MILF peace panel member Maulana Alonto and MILF consultant Raissa Jajurie. – Rappler.com