The exploratory talks between the government of the Philippines (GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia ended Sunday with “substantial progress” but still no finality on the remaining power-sharing and normalization annexes.
Before the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) sealed a deal for wealth-sharing in the future Bangsamoro region in Mindanao, there were too many heart-stopping moments and too much hand wringing in Kuala Lumpur.
After toiling some 12 hours on their sixth day of talks, negotiators of the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) finally hammered a wealth-sharing arrangement between the central government and the future Bangsamoro political entity.
The Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front on Monday resumed talks in Kuala Lumpur on wealth-sharing in the envisioned Bangsamoro autonomy, amid concerns that clashes with Moro insurgents would spill over into the holy month of Ramadan.
The former head of the European Union (EU) mission to the Philippines, Ambassador Alistair McDonald, will head the five-member Third Party Monitoring Team (TPMT) created by the peace panels of government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to oversee the implementation of an eventual comprehensive agreement.
Formal talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Kuala Lumpur will resume in July, government chief negotiator Miriam Coronel-Ferrer said in a statement released by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) on Friday.
The negotiations between the government and Muslim rebels look to have hit a bump. The separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is none too pleased that the latest round of exploratory talks ended in Kuala Lumpur last Thursday without the negotiating panels signing at least one of three annexes to the Bangsamoro Framework Agreement.
Should the ongoing conflict in Sabah be tackled by the Bangsamoro Transition Commission?
The family of a freed Australian hostage expressed hope on Monday that his kidnappers, including Abu Sayyaf bandits and rogue elements of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) who kept him in jungle captivity for 15 months, would be captured and punished so such ordeals would not be repeated.
President Aquino ordered the postponement of talks with Moro rebels until next month even as he claimed that the talks were on track despite the Sabah crisis.
Malaysia has sent a new contingent of peace monitors to the Philippines to monitor the ceasefire between the Philippine government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front, even as the crisis in Sabah escalated.
Senator Gregorio Honasan said the Philippines and Malaysia should talk to resolve the entry of 300 Filipino followers of the Sultanate of Sulu in the Sabah region to prevent an international incident involving armed skirmishes.
