Asian Journal- The Filipino-American Community Newspaper

MANILA - The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is preparing to take the scuttled memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain (MOA-AD) to the international arena.

MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal said the separatist group would be willing to renegotiate “only on the basis” of the agreement “and with the presence of representatives of the international community.”

“We will bring this before the international community, like the Organization of the Islamic Conference [and] the United Nations. We need an international guarantee that if we return to the negotiating table, the government will be true to its word,” Iqbal told Inquirer Mindanao on the phone.

“There is no hope of addressing this problem [at the] domestic level,” he said.

Former Rep. Michael Mastura, a member of the MILF negotiating panel, said the government should take “a singular stand” on the matter so that the peace talks could succeed.

Mastura said the Arroyo administration and the opposition “must agree for once that the Mindanao peace problem is a national agenda.”

“The problem is Mindanao is taken hostage by disagreements within the government,” he said, adding that another way of resolving the conflict in the South was for the government to offer a negotiated political settlement.

‘Lots of options’

Hermogenes Esperon, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s adviser on the peace process, said the Supreme Court decision declaring the MOA-AD illegal could mean an escalation of war but could also lead to finding more ways to peace.

Esperon said the government was not yet giving up on peace: “There are lots of options, but it’s not just my decision.”

He said he had to discuss the matter with other members of the Cabinet, after which “we will submit our recommendations to Malacañang.”

At the Palace, Press Secretary Jesus Dureza aired an appeal to all concerned sectors to “look upon ... the high court’s verdict with sobriety, concern for national interest and adherence to the urgency as well as righteousness of peace in southern Philippines ...