POLOMOLOK, South Cotabato, Philippines The two panels in the Mindanao peace talks will meet tomorrow to firm up a major provision in the truce pact and seek a possible extended presence of the International Monitoring Team (IMT).
Hermogenes C. Esperon, Jr., presidential adviser on the peace process, said Monday representatives from the government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) would meet on July 24 in Malaysia for the final date on the signing of a memorandum of agreement (MoA) on ancestral domain, which will outline the Moros political jurisdiction.
The MoA signing will signal the start of formal peace talks, he said in a media briefing after a closed-door consultation meeting led by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo with local government leaders in Central Mindanao.
The President ordered an information awareness campaign on the peace process, including the conduct of consultations with Central Mindanao officials.
Two provinces in the region North Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat was proposed to be included in the Bangsamoro homeland in a plebiscite scheduled for early next year. The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) will automatically be included in the so-called Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE).
North Cotabato Vice-Governor Emmanuel F. Piñol said the provincial board has opposed the inclusion of some portions of the province in the BJE.
Business leaders in Sultan Kudarat have also junked automatic inclusion in Muslim homeland.
Mr. Esperon assured that the expanded areas will still hold a plebiscite if they want to be included in the BJE.
Meanwhile, Mr. Esperon said the peace panels would also tackle the IMT, whose mandate will end Aug. 31.
Malaysia is heading the truce monitoring team, but has undertaken a phased pulled out since May apparently due to the slow pace of the peace talks at the time. Others countries in the IMT are Brunei, Libya and Japan.
"We see a need for an IMT as long as we have the peace talks," said Mr. Esperon, without elaborating.
Libya had offered to replace Malaysia as IMT head, but Mr. Esperon said the groups composition would still be subject to discussions with Moro rebels.
Meanwhile, a local official opposed to the inclusion of the city in the so-called Muslim homeland on Tuesday asked the peace panels to disclose the details of a draft agreement.
Mayor Celso L. Lobregat, who has objected to calls for some parts of the city to be under the Bangsamoro territory, said he is backing North Cotabato Vice-Governor Emmanuel F. Piñol, who will file a case with the Supreme Court demanding public disclosure of the contents of the ancestral domain draft pact.
"There is no reason for us to join the Bangsamoro homeland. It is like you are going to dismember [the city]. You dont separate the Christian culture and the Muslim culture or the Subanon culture. We are all part of Zamboanga City," he said.
Mr. Lobregat claimed there was no public consultation with stakeholders on the scope of the ancestral domain.
Mr. Lobregat said they are studying other legal options if the government and the Moro rebel will insist on the referendum or plebiscite in this city.
He said the city has rejected plebiscites in 1989 and 2001 to be part of the autonomous Muslim region. Romer S. Sarmiento and Darwin T. Wee, BusinessWorld