The Peace Panel of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) will conduct series of peace forum in the coming months in order to generate more public awareness for the ongoing GRP-MILF Peace Talks, now entering the most difficult phase. Jun Mantawil, head of the MILF peace panel Secretariat, told Luwaran in a recent interview that while the base of support for the peace process is increasing many times, but the “spoilers” are still well-entrenched.

“We must have good mechanism to reach out to those pro-peace process, consolidate them, and thereafter knock at the doors of the spoilers,” he stressed.

He disclosed that the format of the forum would be in three categories: 1) all Moro; 2) all indigenous peoples (IPs); 3) all settlers; 4) Mixed Moro-IPs; 5) Mixed Moro-settlers; and 6) Moro-IPs-settlers combined.

Since two years ago, the MILF peace panel has conducted several peace forums throughout Mindanao and Sulu, but most of these activities were internal in nature; meaning, they were mainly addressed to members, sympathizers of the MILF.
The purpose was to generate support or to neutralize opposition to the peace process as a way of solving the “Bangsamoro Problem” in Mindanao. Even in the MILF, there are sizeable numbers who are opposed to the talks and viewed armed struggle as the only way to victory.

Meanwhile, the MILF peace panel will soon coordinate with its counterpart in the government headed by Secretary Rodolfo Garcia about the possibility of activating the Joint GRP-MILF Advocacy Group, which was formed by the two Parties in 2005.

Atty. Datu Michael Mastura represents the MILF peace panel in that body, while Ms. Sylvia Paraguya for the GRP peace panel.

The group had come up and published a “Primer on the Peace Process”, but the effort for joint advocacy had lost enough steam after the impasse of the talks starting September 2006.

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