By Taher G. Solaiman
Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chief peace negotiator Mohagher Iqbal told reporters today that the call of Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) for the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to immediately return to the negotiating table was a “welcome development because the MILF has been for the negotiated political settlement of the problem in Mindanao.”
Iqbal, however, insisted that the MILF will not return to the negotiating table unless the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) is signed and that the government guarantees it will comply with the agreed negotiation process and all agreements between the two parties.
The MILF chief peace negotiator expressed pessimism that the peace negotiation will resume soon. This is because, according to him, Philippine government “has destroyed the procedure, the agenda of the talks.”
He also accused the Philippine government as “more responsible for the collapse of the peace talks.”
The MOA-AD was supposed to have been signed by the peace negotiating panels in Kuala Lumpur last August 5 but the signing was aborted by issuance of Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) by the Supreme Court granting the petition of the local government units of Cotabato Province and Zamboanga City which feared inclusion in a proposed Bangsamoro territory.
Then, the Supreme Court declared last October 14 the MOA-AD as “contrary to law and the Constitution.”
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