PRESIDENT Gloria Arroyo said yesterday the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front will meet in Kuala Lumpur next week to finalize the composition of an international group that will help speed up peace talks and ensure all deals signed by both parties are implemented.
She said she was optimistic that formal talks with the separatists, suspended in August last year, would resume within the year after the International Contract Group was created.
“I am happy that we are nearing the resumption of formal talks after the framework agreement on the ICG and the agreement for a civilian protection component in the International Monitoring Team have been signed,” Mrs. Arroyo said.
“[Chief government negotiator] Rafael Seguis is now doing consultations among various stakeholders in Mindanao to ensure that their sentiments are relayed when he meets with his MILF counterpart.”
The rebels have been fighting for their own territory since 1978, the year they separated from the Moro National Liberation Front, another separatist Muslim group that eventually signed peace with the government and was awarded an autonomous region.
The government suspended talks with the rebels after some of their commanders attacked several villages in Mindanao last year. That was when the Supreme Court struck down a deal that would have given the group its own territory in Mindanao, saying it was unconstitutional.
Seguis said the contact group would include representatives from the Organization of Islamic Conference and European Union and international non-government organizations.
“We have to achieve a consensus on the roles that they will play and what are expected of them,” he said.
“Once the [contact group] has been established, then we can resume formal talks.”
Meanwhile, the committee handling negotiations for the release of kidnapped Irish priest Michael Sinnot said the case had repercussions on the coming peace talks between the government and the MILF, and because some of the separatist group’s members may have been involved in the abduction.
Group spokesman Allan June Molde asked the rebels to be sincere in helping to gain Sinnott’s release, but added the committee had never accused them of being behind his kidnapping.
Still, Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno yesterday insisted that a rouge rebel commander was holding Sinnott despite the group’s denials of any involvement in his kidnapping.
He said evidence pointed to Al Alsree, leader of therebels’ 113th Brigade, as the one holding Sinnott.
“We are now in the case-buildup mode,” he said.
“Charges will be filed against Al Alsree and his cohorts.”
Sinnott, 79, was abducted by six gunmen on Oct. 11 as he was strolling in the garden of his residence in Pagadian City. His group, the Missionary Society of St. Columban, had feared for his life because he has a heart condition and he was not carrying medication when he was abducted.
His kidnappers on Saturday released a video in which he says his captors are demanding $2 million in exchange for his freedom. The government rejected the ransom demand the next day, but said efforts would continue to safely secure Sinnott’s freedom.
Sinnott, a native of Barntown, County Wexford, has worked in the Philippines for decades. His group said he was first assigned in Mindanao between 1957 and 1966, and then returned in 1976. He has been involved in a school for handicapped children since 1998. Joyce Pangco Pañares and Florante S. Solmerin
