By ELLEN TORDESILLAS
PEACE talks between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front have been stalled for eight months now because the government panel wants a review of the way Malaysia has been facilitating the peace talks.
Highly placed sources said the Philippine panel has raised issues over the presence of a Malaysian facilitator who is “blatantly pro-MILF.” The Philippine panel also wants a say in logistical matters such as accommodations for its personnel in Kuala Lumpur.
Highly placed government sources said Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Rafael Seguis, the new head of the Philippine negotiating panel, is miffed that Malaysian facilitator Datuk Othman Abd Razak has been “biased” toward the MILF, and has asked for his replacement. National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzalez had also earlier asked that Othman be replaced. Malaysia has rejected both requests.
Sources said Seguis lodged his request when he paid a courtesy call on Malaysian Foreign Minister Rais Yatim and Malaysian Foreign Affairs Secretary General Tan Sri Rastam Mohd Issa on Jan. 28.
Malaysia has been brokering the talks between the Philippine government and the separatist MILF since 2001 when President Arroyo asked for Malaysia’s help in ending the 11-year conflict that has killed more than 120,000 and displaced more than two million people in the Mindanao.
But the peace talks came to a halt in August last year after the two sides came close to signing the controversial Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD). The MOA-AD was supposed to create a new Muslim territory called Bangsa Moro Juridical Entity (BJE) that would have included the existing Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) plus 700 more barangays in other provinces in Mindanao.
The Supreme Court eventually junked the MOA-AD as unconstitutional.
Sources said it was Othman who advised the MILF panel to demand a 95-5 sharing of profit from exploitation of natural resources under the BJE. The final version of the MOA-AD provided for a 75-25 sharing of profits.
Seguis declined to comment on the reported request to replace Othman but he did say that the government panel wants “to start the negotiation with a review of the character of the facilitation process.”
He said one of the changes he would ask is for the Philippine panel to pay for the accommodations of its own negotiators and staff members during talks in Kuala Lumpur, to give the panel greater freedom and mobility.
Under Seguis’ predecessor retired general Rodolfo Garcia, Malaysia shouldered all the expenses for the talks and decided on everything including the accommodation for the Philippine delegation. “For all we know, those rooms were bugged and the MILF knew the Philippine panel’s strategy,” a source said.
Othman, who has served as adviser to outgoing Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi for 35 years, also refused to give transcripts of the discussions to panel members, the source said.
A diplomatic source said the office of outgoing Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi viewed Seguis’ request as a violation of the policy of non-interference adhered to by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Another diplomatic source said Seguis may just get his wish when Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak takes over as prime minister from Badawi soon, and Othman will have to be automatically replaced.
The Philippine panel is still currently waiting for Malaysia to issue invitations for a resumption of peace talks with the MILF. If that happens, Seguis said he wants to make sure that that the agreement he would sign with the MILF would not be stopped by the Supreme Court which issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) just before the MOA-AD was to be signed in Kuala Lumpur.
“I don’t want another TRO,” Seguis said.
Malaysia withdrew its peacekeepers from the International Monitoring Team that oversaw the ceasefire between government and MILF troops, leaving only ten personnel from Libya and seven from Brunei still stationed in Cotabato.
Seguis, meanwhile, clarified that the much-hyped participation of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in the GRP-MILF peace talks announced by Press Secretary Serge Remonde and Presidential Adviser for Peace Process Avelino Razon was “just an idea.”
Seguis said an eminent persons group that would serve as advisers in the peace talks worked in Africa countries such as Zimbawe, Sierra Leone and Kenya but will not necessarily be adopted in the talks with MILF. Blair and former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan were suggested as possible members.
Seguis said the matter never came up when Blair met with President Arroyo last week.
The MILF led by Hashim Salamat started as a breakaway group from the mainstream Moro National Liberation Front under Nur Misuari in 1976 when the latter opted for autonomy instead of the original vision of an independent Muslim state.
After the GRP-MNLF final peace agreement in July 1996, the government started talks with the MILF, whose ranks reportedly swelled to 14,000 armed personnel a year later. MILF leadership was passed on to Ebrahim Murad in 2003 when Salamat died.
Last week, Razon called on the MILF to return to the negotiating table to resume the stalled peace talks. “I know there will be obstacles along the way, but I am confident that we can resolve our differences,” he said.