PHILIPPINES: On the Bangsamoro Framework Agreement (tags)
The Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL) joins the Filipino people, especially the Bangsamoros in Mindanao, in welcoming, although guardedly, the historic signing today of the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro between the Philippine government (GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
AQUINO III, MURAD OF MILF HELD TALKS IN TOKYO FOR TWO HOURS (tags)
The Alliance News (AN) learned today through media reports from Manila that President Benigno Aquino III left the country unannounced on Thursday night to hold unprecedented talks with a Muslim rebel leader in Japan. According to AN, Mr. Aquino met for two hours with Murad Ebrahim, chair of the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), in a hotel near the Narita airport in Tokyo on Thursday evening, the first time a Philippine president has met face-to-face with a leader of the rebel group since on-and-off peace talks started 14 years ago. The MILF called Mr. Aquino?s effort a ?grand gesture? that gave ?a tremendous boost to the peace process.? Ghadzali Jaafar, the MILF political affairs chief, said it was ?a fruitful meeting.?
RP ‘surprised’ at Malaysia monitors’ pullout (tags)
he Philippines on Tuesday said it was surprised at Malaysia’s decision to end its monitoring mission to the troubled southern Mindanao island this year. The government’s chief peace adviser Jesus Dureza said he had just finished a trip to Kuala Lumpur and officials there had given “no indication of any announcement of total withdrawal.” “I feel that we, as neighbors, should be working very closely for peace,” Dureza said. “I am confident that Malaysia will be with us all the way.”
Talks with MILF to resume after elections (tags)
Stalled peace talks between the government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are to resume after the May 14 elections. Both sides have agreed to work toward a resumption of the talks, Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said in a statement Thursday. ---BACKED by howitzer and mortar fire, elite Army troops on Thursday seized a makeshift camp of the Moro National Liberation Front in Sulu where nearly 100 Abu Sayyaf extremists were believed to be hiding.
MILF CALLS FOR DEFENSE OF THE HOMELAND (tags)
Moro Islamic Liberation Front chairman Murad Ebrahim has called on his fellow Muslims and members of the indigenous communities to stand up together and defend their "homeland." Murad issued the call following last week's stalemate in the peace negotiations