GPH, MILF peace panels return to KL to work on annexes

From MindaNews (Jan 20): GPH, MILF peace panels return to KL to work on annexes

The government (GPH) and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace panels are returning to Kuala Lumpur this week to resume negotiations on the four annexes to the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro. In a press statement released by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, government peace panel chair Miriam Coronel-Ferrer said this week’s negotations, scheduled to begin Monday, are “crucial” as both panels hope to finish the unresolved issues on Power-sharing, Wealth-sharing, Normalization and Transitional Arrangements and Modalities.
It will be the third time the panels are meeting to complete the annexes.

Both panels were supposed to have finished the annexes before the end of the 2012, in accordance with the FAB which was signed on October 15, 2012 in Malacanang. The FAB provides for the creation of a new autonomous political entity that would replace the 22-year old Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). President Aquino last month issued an Executive Order creating the Transition Commission (TransCom) that would, among others, draft the Bangsamoro basic law. The 15-member all-Bangsamoro TransCom will be composed of eight members from the MILF and seven members from the GPH. The President issued Executive Order 120 on December 18, creating the TransCom. A month later, however, he has yet to name the TransCom members. Both the GPH and MILF have submitted the names of their nominees.  As agreed upon in the FAB, the MILF will head the TransCom.

The MILF website, luwaran.com, quoted MILF chair Al Haj Murad Ebrahim as saying the MILF is “ very optimistic that the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro will be a successful negotiated political solution given the strong commitment of both the GPH and MILF, the Malaysian Government being the Third Party Facilitator and the overwhelming commitment of support from the international community and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.” It said Murad made the statement in several media interviews at Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur, venue of the three-day Malay Archipelago Seminar on Islam in Southeast Asia: Challenges and Hopes.

Murad spoke on the topic “Islam in the Malay Archipelago: The New Rise of the Bangsamoro.” Murad was also quoted as saying that the MILF “learned a lot from the moderation approach of the Malaysia government and we significantly consider it in the establishment and administration of the Bangsamoro government considering the nature of a pluralistic society in the Bangsamoro.”

The annexes on Power-sharing, Wealth-sharing, Normalization, and Transitional Arrangements and Modalities, were supposed to have been finished by yearend to complete the comprehensive peace agreement. But the four-day talks in KL ended at around 7:15 p.m. December 15 with both panel chairs saying significant progress was made. But no Joint Statement was issued on what transpired during the talks and no date was set for the next talks.

http://www.mindanews.com/peace-process/2013/01/20/gph-milf-peace-panels-return-to-kl-to-work-on-annexes/