MANILA, July 19 (PNA) – Silvestre Afable, former chair of the government peace panel negotiating with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is optimistic of the outcome of the exploratory peace talks between the government and the Moro rebels.
"Yes, I’m optimistic,” Afable said when reached by phone by the
Philippines News Agency shortly before the 29th exploratory talk ended
Wednesday night.
The closed door negotiation which started Monday was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia which is the third party facilitator.
Afable was the chairman of the government peace panel during the initial stages of the talks in early 2000.
He expressed the hope that the current negotiations will result in the signing of a peace agreement to end the long-drawn Mindanao conflict that started in 1973 or almost four decades.
The conflict which was initiated by the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), forerunner of the MILF, had killed over 150,000, wounded many more and displaced tens of thousands over the years.
In 1996, the Ramos administration signed a peace agreement with the MNLF that ended the fighting in southern Philippines but it was only briefly because the MILF opposed the peace accord.
The MILF continued their struggle for an independent state as fighting broke out again, the biggest of which was in 2000 when then President Joseph Estrada declared an all-out war against the MILF after the latter launched a series of attacks in Central Philippines.
But the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) crushed the MILF uprising, capturing practically all 49 MILF camps.
When Estrada was ousted in the so-called EDSA 2 revolt in 2001, talks between the government and the MILF resumed during the administration of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
However, fighting erupted anew in Central Mindanao in 2008 following the aborted signing of the controversial Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) which was declared as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
Despite the fighting, the government and the MILF continued their backdoor negotiations as exploratory talks resumed again in the latter part of 2009 and continued by President Benigno S. Aquino III when he assumed the presidency on June 30, 2010.
The President went of his way by meeting with MILF chair Al Haj Murad in Tokyo last year with high hopes to fast track the peace negotiations between the government and the MILF.
The closed door negotiation which started Monday was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia which is the third party facilitator.
Afable was the chairman of the government peace panel during the initial stages of the talks in early 2000.
He expressed the hope that the current negotiations will result in the signing of a peace agreement to end the long-drawn Mindanao conflict that started in 1973 or almost four decades.
The conflict which was initiated by the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), forerunner of the MILF, had killed over 150,000, wounded many more and displaced tens of thousands over the years.
In 1996, the Ramos administration signed a peace agreement with the MNLF that ended the fighting in southern Philippines but it was only briefly because the MILF opposed the peace accord.
The MILF continued their struggle for an independent state as fighting broke out again, the biggest of which was in 2000 when then President Joseph Estrada declared an all-out war against the MILF after the latter launched a series of attacks in Central Philippines.
But the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) crushed the MILF uprising, capturing practically all 49 MILF camps.
When Estrada was ousted in the so-called EDSA 2 revolt in 2001, talks between the government and the MILF resumed during the administration of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
However, fighting erupted anew in Central Mindanao in 2008 following the aborted signing of the controversial Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) which was declared as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
Despite the fighting, the government and the MILF continued their backdoor negotiations as exploratory talks resumed again in the latter part of 2009 and continued by President Benigno S. Aquino III when he assumed the presidency on June 30, 2010.
The President went of his way by meeting with MILF chair Al Haj Murad in Tokyo last year with high hopes to fast track the peace negotiations between the government and the MILF.
The
negotiations continued up to the present with both sides expressing
confidence to reach a final settlement of the Mindanao conflict. (PNA)
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