Govt expresses confidence wealth sharing agreement with MILF to be completed next week

From InterAksyon (Jul 5): Govt expresses confidence wealth sharing agreement with MILF to be completed next week

The Philippine government has expressed confidence of completing provisions of a wealth-sharing arrangement between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front when peace talks resume next month.

"We're both very conscious that we do want to finish the annex as soon as possible," Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, the head of the government peace panel, said in a press statement released on Friday. "We do need to find compromises to be able to put something in the text and sign on to it."

Aside from the wealth-sharing annex, both panels have yet to complete the annexes on power-sharing and normalization.

"It's in this stage that both parties want to come to terms with the remaining issues, specially pertaining to the wealth-sharing annex that has taken a long time to process," Ferrer said.

The draft on wealth-sharing between the two entities provides for a fiscal arrangement that is better than what exists in the current Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

"There will be more taxing powers and a more defined sharing of government resources on the whole, in keeping with the goal of having a strong and viable autonomous Bangsamoro governance," she said. "If things go well, we might be able to have a good working draft of the power sharing annex with only few items left for resolution."

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/65661/govt-expresses-confidence-wealth-sharing-agreement-with-milf-to-be-completed-next-week