By Joyce Pangco Pa?ares

President Arroyo, vowing to make 2009 a ?comeback year? for the peace process, is sending government negotiators to Kuala Lumpur to try to restart talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

In a speech at Camp Crame, Mrs. Arroyo said that negotiators have been ordered to seek support from Brunei, Japan, Libya and Malaysia to break a five-month impasse.

Mrs. Arroyo instructed chief negotiator Rafael Seguis to leave today for Kuala Lumpur and try to ?schedule the resumption of the peace talks? when he meets with Malaysian Foreign Minister Rais Yatim and Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak.

?The peace panel has been directed to touch base with our facilitators and the MILF leaders to schedule resumption of peace talks,? Mrs. Arroyo said.

For his part, Seguis said he will seek a formal commitment from Kuala Lumpur to remain as facilitator of the negotiations as well as inform the Malaysian officials of some changes in the terms of reference of the monitoring team.

The Arroyo administration seeks the creation of three monitoring groups covering security, economic development, and the implementation of the disarmament-demobilization-reintegration policy.

Libya and Brunei will remain with the security monitoring team while representatives from Japan, Brunei and Qatar can be invited to oversee the implementation of development projects in Mindanao, especially those within the Bangsamoro ancestral domain.

Both Libya and Brunei have committed to increase their ceasefire monitors in Mindanao to bring the total number to 40 after Malaysia withdrew its contingent in November.

The United Kingdom, Sweden, Spain and Germany can also be invited to act as international guarantors in the decommissioning of MILF rebels, Seguis said.

?We are optimistic that we can schedule informal talks soon, maybe next month or early March. I am sure the MILF are just as committed to the peace process, and we are approaching the negotiations without any preconditions,? the chief government negotiator said.

Seguis said he would also inform the Malaysian officials on the appointment of National Security Council director general Avelino Razon Jr. as the new presidential adviser on the peace process.

Seguis was supposed to be accompanied by outgoing peace adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. who was appointed head of the Presidential Management Staff.

Razon said that police-military operations against renegade members of the Moro rebels will continue even as the peace process is being renewed.

Talks bogged down in August last year after both parties failed to sign a memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain that would have created a homeland for the Moro rebels. Malaysia withdrew its peace monitors last November.

MILF rebels, protesting the rejection of the ancestral domain pact, attacked several towns in Central Mindanao and killed at least 60 civilians, forcing Mrs. Arroyo to suspend the talks unilaterally. with Romie Evangelista and AFP