By Joyce Pangco Pa?ares

THE new panel of government negotiators will ensure setbacks like the aborted deal granting separatist Muslim rebels their own homeland will not be repeated, an official said yesterday.

The government ?learned its lesson? when the Supreme Court struck down the pact for being unconstitutional, said Hermogenes Esperon Jr., the presidential adviser on the peace process.

?Any new agreement will be guided by the Constitution and the results of our consultations with key stakeholders in Mindanao,? Esperon said in a telephone interview.

?The background of the people we have chosen to form our reconstituted panel and the dialogs we held in Mindanao will ensure that what happened to the agreement on ancestral domain will not be repeated.?

The government was poised to sign a deal in Malaysia on Aug. 5 last year that would have granted the Moro Islamic Liberation Front its own homeland in Mindanao, but that was aborted after the Supreme Court ruled that the agreement was unconstitutional.

The Court?s decision prompted three MILF commanders to attack several villages in Central Mindanao, killing at least 60 civilians. That forced President Arroyo to suspend the negotiations with the rebels indefinitely and to dissolve the government panel negotiating peace with them.

The government later chose a new panel chairman, former Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Rafael Seguis, for his experience in dealing with Muslim countries as the Philippines? former ambassador to Indonesia, East Timor, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iraq and Jordan.

Seguis? experience working with the Organization of Islamic Conference was also expected to play a crucial role in facilitating the talks with the MILF once negotiations resumed, Esperon said.

He said former Rep. Ronald Adamat was chosen as a panel member because he represented the Lumad indigenous group and was the co-author of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act.

?Some of the demands of the MILF on ancestral domain rights can very well fall under the IPRA law,? Esperon said.

?So having the law?s co-author in the panel will ensure that what we agree with the MILF is well within the bounds of the law.?

Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman was chosen ?to provide continuity,? having been a member of the original panel.

Former General Santos Mayor Adelbert Antonino was tapped to represent the Christian community in Mindanao and local executives in the areas to be affected by future negotiations with the MILF.

Iligan-based businessman Tomas Cabili Jr. will represent the Muslim community, Esperon said.