Moro rebels ready with talks

From Business World (Dec 9): Moro rebels ready with talks

The head of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s (MILF ) negotiating panel yesterday said his team is ready to face its government counterpart led by a woman chief negotiator when the two parties resume talks within this month for the remaining key issues in the peace plan. In a statement, Mohagher Iqbal, MILF chief peace negotiator, denied unconfirmed reports that the MILF wants the government peace panel to be headed by a male given the "Moro tradition and good practices, man is not supposed to argue with women." But the rebel leader said that "negotiation, it is not about argumentation and debate but essentially discussion of issues and concerns and to agree or to disagree or look for a common way out."

On Saturday, Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, a professor of the University of the Philippines, was appointed chairman of the negotiating panel. She has been a member of the peace panel when the Aquino administration resumed the talks in 2010. She replaced Mario Victor F. Leonen, who was also associate justice of the Supreme Court last month.

Mr. Iqbal said he sees Ms. Ferrer as capable in dealing with talks. "She deserved it and [she] is capable to handle the task, besides her being the vice-chairwoman of the government peace panel right now," he said. "I wished her luck and looked up for more strides in the talks under her stewardship," Mr. Iqbal added.

For his part, Ghazali Jaafar, vice-chairman of the MILF, said in an interview at the weekend that the MILF has no right to be involved in the appointment of the government panel head. "It’s internal to the government," he said, adding that in the negotiations issues are more important than personalities. The MILF, however, has rejected a previous appointment by the government. In 2007, the Arroyo administration announced the appointment of Catholic priest Eliseo R. Mercado, Jr. to head the government panel, but this was abandoned over protests from the MILF. At that time, the MILF said appointing a church person will lead to a "highly partisan" discussion.

The government and MILF panels are expected to conclude discussions within the month on three annexes of the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro. These are power and wealth sharing, and the normalization, which includes the disarmament of the Moro fighters.

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