KORONADAL CITY -- The government has set January next year as timeframe for the conclusion of the ticklish ancestral domain agenda in the peace process with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a ranking government peace negotiator said.

Rudy B. Rodil, vice chair of the government peace panel, however, declined to give specific details involving the territory strand even as he noted that three elements are being considered to thresh out things.

"By the first week of December, we hope to come up with the draft agreement on ancestral domain for signing [hopefully] by middle of January," Rodil said in a peace journalism seminar organized by the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility last week in Antipolo City.

With the government shelling out at least P73 billion in the war with the Moro rebels from 1970 to 1996, Rodil stressed that more days have been utilized in fighting than in talking peace.

"How many children could that amount send to school?" he added.

Although the government signed a final peace agreement in September 1996 with the Moro National Liberation Front, the Moro rebellion in Mindanao has not died down with the MILF taking on the cause for the Bangsamoro people.

Rodil said the government dangled 613 villages outside the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm), a region formed in 1990 and ceded to the MNLF following the 1996 peace agreement, to the MILF.

But the MILF rejected the proposal because it will be subjected to the constitutional process of plebiscite.

According to Rodil, the MILF wanted at least one-third of Mindanao to be under its territory and "is no longer pushing for an independent state in the southern Philippines."

Rodil said the three elements being considered in the negotiations to put a close to ancestral domain are the maritime areas, which are adjacent to the autonomous Muslim region and areas that are far from the Armm.

On the maritime aspect, Rodil explained that the MILF is asserting that its areas include not just lands but also the seas because Moros are sea-faring people.

Rodil, a historian, said that Moro people used to dominate the political, cultural, and economic landscape of Mindanao but this all changed over time with the coming in of settlers several decades ago.

He said that after the ancestral domain agenda will be agreed on, they would then proceed to the signing of a compact peace agreement that includes security and rehabilitation.

The security and rehabilitation/development aspects have been approved by both sides a few years ago.

Al Haj Murad Ebrahim, MILF chair, earlier said the front is anticipating rough sailing for the final political settlement of the Mindanao conflict with the government.

"I see more challenges ahead on the political negotiations. That is why we need more help from the international community and the local key players of the peace process," Murad said in a statement.

But the MILF chairman expressed confidence the stumbling blocks can be hurdled with strong political will especially on the side of the government, leading to the forging of a comprehensive peace agreement possibly within 2008.

Last October, both sides were able to break the deadlock caused by the ancestral domain agenda starting September last year.

Peace talks between the government and the MILF, currently the largest Islamic armed group in the country, started in 1997.

Present negotiations are being brokered by Malaysia, which is also leading the International Monitoring Team mandated to check on ceasefire violations. 

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