Source: Luwaran 

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi met at the sidelines of the ongoing Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit late Saturday at Sydney, Australia, a report reaching Luwaran today. The two Southeast Asian leaders discussed, among other urgent bilateral issues, the much-delayed resumption of peace talks between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)

Arroyo and Badawi, the report said, agreed to schedule another round of exploratory talks in Kuala Lumpur to zero-in on the issue of territory of the future Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE) which caused the impasse of the talks since September 2006.

However, the report did not say whether the two leaders set a specific date for the resumption, although Manila is giving September 27 as the resumption timeline.

 Malaysia has been brokering the GRP-MILF peace talks since 2001 after Arroyo sought the help of Kuala Lumpur to help convince the MILF to return to the negotiating table after the all-out war declared by President Estrada in 2000.

Asked to comment on this meeting, Maulana Bobby Alonto, a member of the MILF peace panel, told Luwaran that this is a welcome development, saying resort to the negotiating table is a better alternative than going to war.

However, he urged the government to be serious in the peace talks by abiding to the already agreed framework of commitment by the Parties to look for a “new formula suitable and acceptable to the Bangsamoro people, as enunciated in the Tripoli Agreement on Peace of June 22, 2001.

He said the MILF received very reliable information that the government is contemplating on offering the MILF an “enhanced autonomy”, which he advised the government never to try if it wants the peace process to move on.

He described the offer as another sign of insincerity on the part of the government, if it ever makes true the offer.

This offer, he said, belongs to the “old formula” which the Parties discarded when they sign the Tripoli Agreement in 2001.

“Why offer it again and again, if the government means real business in the talks?’ he asked.

In 2003, President Arroyo dangled it o the MILF, but when the MILF flatly rejected it, the government launched another all-out war on February 11, 2003.

Arroyo also met with US President George Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao during the APEC meeting.

She discussed with the Chinese leader the joint mineral exploration in the South China Sea and how to ensure stability in the region.

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