Gov’t downgrades peace talks, MILF says (tags)
Manila-- The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has described the replacement of Secretary Silvestre Afable as government chief negotiator with a non-cabinet member as a deliberate downgrading of the peace process by the government following Afable’s alleged resignation the other day. Jun Mantawil, head of the MILF peace panel secretariat, told Luwaran that while the MILF leadership has the highest respect for Father Eliseo Mercado Jr. as “a person, friend and as a priest” but he does not possess the authority that a cabinet member possesses.
AJLPP Express Deep Concern Over MILF-GRP Talks:Gov’t chief peace negotiator for MILF quits (tags)
The Alliance for Just and Lasting Peace (AJLPP) today expressed apprehensions over the sudden and unexplained resignation of Silvestre Afable Jr. , government negotiator for peace process for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) MILF equally expressed fears that negotiations for a peace agreement with the government would have to start from scratch again as a result of the resignation of the chief of the government’s peace panel, Silvestre Afable. AJLPP is deeply concerned that Afable’s resignation came at a time when the government and the MILF were close to restarting talks on a proposed ancestral homeland for 3 million Muslims in Mindanao. AJLPP knows that Afable who was a former staffer of DND Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile,has served since the two sides agreed to return to negotiations after hostilities erupted in February 2003.
GRP-MILF talks deadlocked on ancestral domain (tags)
BACKDOOR peace negotiations between the largest separatist rebels and the government continue to be deadlocked over the issue of ancestral domain. Sources close to Secretary Silvestre Afable Jr. said Wednesday that the December 1 meeting between leaders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and government negotiators in Malaysia failed to break the four-month impasse in the peace parley. “Technically, the deadlock stays because the two panels did not reach any settlement on the territorial domain,” the sources told The Manila Times.