COTABATO CITY – The Moro Islamic Liberation Front wants US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to visit Mindanao and see the situation a year after fighting erupted following the failed signing of a deal that would have led to the setting up of a Bangsamoro homeland.
Clinton will be in Manila from Nov. 12 to Nov. 13, before joining US President Barack Obama in Singapore for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders' summit where he will make an inaugural appearance.
“We join the Filipinos in welcoming her. It would be good too if she can proceed to Mindanao to look into the situation of people affected by the conflict as a gesture of goodwill,” MILF vice chair for political affairs Ghazali Jaafar told the Inquirer by phone Sunday.
This will be Clinton's first visit to the Philippines as US Secretary of State where she will be making a courtesy call on President Macapagal-Arroyo and will meet with her Philippine counterpart, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo.
Jaafar said the peace negotiation would resume anytime in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia.
Earlier, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Annabelle Abaya called on the MILF not to give up on the peace talks.
Abaya said she would like to see the formal reopening of the peace talks next month, which she said would be a great Christmas gift for the Filipino people.
Government chief negotiator Rafael Seguis said the abduction of Irish priest Michael Sinnott in Mindanao “should not be related to the peace process.”
“I have faith and trust in the MILF ... otherwise “I have no business talking to them,” he said.
The US has been supporting the peace process between the Philippine government and the MILF.
Last month, top Washington officials from Manila held a secret meeting with Muslim rebel leaders in Maguindanao province where they reaffirmed US support to the peace talks between the Philippine government and the MILF.
In 2008, US Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney also met with MILF chief Murad Ebrahim where she assured the rebel group of her country’s support to the peace talks.
The peace talks between the government and the MILF collapsed in August 2008 after the Supreme Court stopped the signing, by the Philippine government and the MILF, of a memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain.
The MOA-AD would have paved the way for the setting up of an autonomous state for the MILF composed of areas which the rebel group had claimed as the Muslims’ ancestral domain.
Once signed, both sides are expected to work towards a final peace deal.
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