Manila to offer 'genuine autonomy' to Muslims at talks<\/p>\n
MANILA (Agencies): The Philippine government said on Wednesday
\nit will offer \"genuine autonomy\" to Muslims after their main
\nseparatist group agreed to resume peace talks to end nearly three
\ndecades of insurrection in the south.<\/p>\n
But the authorities would not offer to return captured land
\nfrom the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) at the talks to be
\nheld in neighboring Malaysia, Vice-President and Foreign
\nSecretary Teofisto Guingona told a media forum.<\/p>\n
He said that MILF territories in the southern island of
\nMindanao, including the group's main Camp Abubakar, captured
\nduring ousted president Joseph Estrada's rule, would not be
\nreturned to the rebels because it was not theirs.<\/p>\n
\"The camps, mainly Abubakar and the one in Lanao del Sur
\n(province), Camp Bushra, are not really military camps that
\nshould be returned, they will not be returned to the rebels,\"
\nGuingona stressed.<\/p>\n
He said the government wanted to convert the 10,000-hectare
\n(24,700-acre) Camp Abubakar into a \"real farmland\" for high-
\nvalued crops to improve the lives of the huge civilian population
\nliving within three municipalities inside the camp.<\/p>\n
Camp Abubakar, several times bigger than Singapore, had been
\nthe central headquarters of the MILF, which has waged an
\nintermittent 23-year guerrilla campaign to carve out an Islamic
\nstate in the southern third of the largely Roman Catholic
\nPhilippine archipelago.<\/p>\n
The MILF is a splinter of the Moro National Liberation Front
\n(MNLF) which fought the government much earlier but signed a
\npeace treaty in 1996 and opted for limited self rule under a so-
\ncalled Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao.<\/p>\n
The MNLF however has lamented that autonomy has been
\neffectively in name only.<\/p>\n
Guingona said on Wednesday that the government would not
\nrenege on its autonomy promise. \"Real autonomy is what they want
\nand we intend to give that to them.\"<\/p>\n
Estrada had ordered an all out assault on the MILF after peace
\ntalks failed. The MILF retaliated with a \"jihad\" or holy war
\nleading to a series of deadly bombings.<\/p>\n
Immediately after winning power in January, President Gloria
\nArroyo offered the olive branch to the rebels. She announced a
\nbreakthrough on Tuesday, saying MILF envoys had agreed in secret
\ntalks with her aides in Malaysia to resume negotiations and for
\nthe rebels to declare a cease-fire. A date for the talks had yet
\nto be set.<\/p>\n
Sincere move<\/p>\n
Guingona, who comes from Mindanao, said on Wednesday that if
\nthe Muslims could understand that the government's peace effort
\nwas a sincere move and intended to help them \"the old biases
\nbetween Muslims and Christians may fade\".<\/p>\n
He said the \"substance\" of a prospective peace agreement with
\nthe MILF \"will consist of a sincere recognition of the root
\ncauses of the conflict and common solutions to the conflict\".<\/p>\n
He ruled out secession or independence for the Muslims, saying
\nFilipinos would have to \"live as neighbors\" within the autonomous
\narea.<\/p>\n
Asked to elaborate on the autonomy plan, Guingona said one of
\nits vital aspects was \"fiscal autonomy\" where the regional
\ngovernment would have the right to manage its own resources.<\/p>\n
\"Akin to this would be the right to exercise their own
\nculture, religion and ways of life,\" he said.<\/p>\n
But Guingona said one of the issues being ironed out was the
\nimplementation of criminal Islamic or Shariah law in an
\nautonomous region.<\/p>\n
\"We are studying moderate Shariah laws that can be a
\ncompatible relationship between our constitution and the Shariah
\nlaw of our Muslim brothers.\"<\/p>\n
Eduardo Ermita, who represented the Philippine government,
\nsaid Malaysia helped arranged the exploratory talks and sent
\nobservers to the meeting last week. Officials and rebels say the
\nMalaysia's crucial role make it the likely venue of planned
\ntalks.<\/p>\n
\"There is now an agreement that we'll really push through with
\nthe talks,\" Ermita told Manila radio station DZRH from Kuala
\nLumpur.<\/p>\n
Rebel spokesman Eid Kabalu said the MILF wants a member
\ncountry of the influential Organization of Islamic Conference
\n(OIC), such as Malaysia, to mediate the talks.<\/p>\n
Indonesia, also a member of the OIC, brokered talks that
\nconvinced the MNLF to drop their separatist goal and sign a peace
\naccord with the Philippine government.<\/p>",
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