The Alliance for Just and lasting Peace in the Philippines (AJLPP) through its National Coordinator Mario Santos expressed dismay over the break-off of peace talks between the Moro Islamic Front (MILF) and the Government of the Philippines (GRP ) last December 16,2007. The AJLPP’s Santos saidthat the news is bad for the cause of peace, learned through media sources that the scheduled exploratory talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Saturday did not push through after the MILF backed out of the meeting due to a dispute over a draft agreement on territorial boundaries. The MILF rejected the inclusion by government negotiators of the phrase “constitutional process” in the proposed draft Memorandum of Agreement on ancestral domain as the mode for implementation of the agreement.
RP Update
On the Stalled MILF-GRP Peace Talks
Los Angeles -The Alliance for Just and lasting Peace in the Philippines (AJLPP) through its National Coordinator Mario Santos expressed dismay over the break-off of peace talks between the Moro Islamic Front (MILF) and the Government of the Philippines (GRP ) last December 16,2007.
The AJLPP’s Santos saidthat the news is bad for the cause of peace, learned through media sources that the scheduled exploratory talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Saturday did not push through after the MILF backed out of the meeting due to a dispute over a draft agreement on territorial boundaries.
The MILF rejected the inclusion by government negotiators of the phrase “constitutional process” in the proposed draft Memorandum of Agreement on ancestral domain as the mode for implementation of the agreement.
The AJLPP supports the MILF demand that more than 1,000 Muslim villages be placed under ancestral domain.. The GRP wanted this areas under “ constitutional process”. The area is much bigger than the present day government sponsored Muslim Autonomous Region (ARMM. )
“They wanted the same constitutional process with the Moro National Liberation Front as the mode for the implementation. That’s their position and we cannot accept it. We have yet to see the document,” Eid Kabalu, MILF’s civil-military affairs chief, told the media..
The AJLPP’s Santos expressed deep concern with the belligerent attitude of the US-Arroyo Regime. The peace talks is on in jeopardy as the NDFP and the GRP has been stalled since 2004.
With the peace talks in limbo armed conflict escalates nationwide. Peace it seems is a re mote possibility in the Philippines.
Original: On the Stalled MILF-GRP Peace Talks