Philippines, MILF Hold Talks in Malaysian Capital

Representatives of the new Philippine government and a delegation from the rebel group Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) meet in Kuala Lumpur this weekend for talks on implementing a stalled peace deal, diplomats said.

The two-day meeting is the first face-to-face meeting between the two sides since Rodrigo Duterte, the new president of the Philippines, took office in June, and they will begin negotiating a new version of a law associated with the deal, according to reports.

The two-year-old agreement has been held up because the Philippine Senate did not take up the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), whose passage is needed to implement the deal, before former President Benigno Aquino III left office.

“This meeting is actually to launch the implementation stage of what we envisioned to be a Bangsamoro enabling law. It is to implement the CAB [Comprehensive Agreement in Bangsamoro],” Philippine Ambassador to Malaysia J. Eduardo Malaya told BenarNews on Friday, referring to a Malaysian-brokered deal struck between the government in Manila and MILF in March 2014.

Malaysian officials declined to comment on the meeting, but Norway’s ambassador to Manila confirmed that a meeting in Kuala Lumpur was set for Aug. 13.

“Both parties come together in discussing the implementation phase. This shows their commitment to peace and development in Mindanao. The meeting presents an opportunity to build momentum for the peace efforts,” Norwegian Ambassador Erik Førner said in a statement.

Norway is part of the International Monitoring Team for the ceasefire.

‘That is the solution for Mindanao’

Under the comprehensive agreement that aims to end four decades of fighting between the two sides, MILF agreed to lay down its weapons in exchange for the establishment of a southern autonomous region. MILF rebels have fought since the 1970s for autonomy for the predominantly Muslim Bangsamoro people of the southern Philippines.

The BBL also faltered because of resentment among Filipinos over a raid by Philippine police commandoes on Mindanao island in January 2015 that went terribly wrong, reports said.

Forty-four commandos died when they got caught in a firefight with MILF rebels after Philippine security forces had hunted down and killed a wanted Malaysian militant, Zulkifli bin Hir (better known as Marwan), in the raid at Mamasapano. At least 17 MILF rebels were killed.

The Philippines then accused MILF of violating a ceasefire that had followed the signing of the peace deal a year earlier.

Despite those tensions, both the ceasefire and the agreement have held.

The meeting on Saturday and Sunday will concentrate on crafting a new law for the agreement, Rappler quoted Jesus Dureza, the Philippine government’s chief peace adviser, as saying. Dureza is the leader of a six-member Philippine delegation in Kuala Lumpur

In his first State of the Nation speech on July 25, Duterte voiced his administration’s commitment to pursuing a new peace track with MILF and other armed groups, including the Communist Party of the Philippines. Yet while touching on the peace agreement with MILF, he called on Congress to pass a new law “minus the constitutional issues that are contentious.”

“That is the solution for Mindanao, nothing else,” Duterte told Philippine legislators.

“Believe me, nothing else will do. Please sleep on it, ponder on it, because that is the only way to proceed,” Duterte said, according to a transcript of his speech.