Libya offers help to the Philippines

Libya offers help to the Philippines

MANILA (DPA): The Libyan government has offered to help spur economic development in the strife-torn southern Philippines by bringing in investment and assisting in the peace process with rebels, President Joseph Estrada said on Thursday.

Estrada announced before leaving for a provincial trip that the offer was made by Saif Al Islam Al Qaddafi, a son of Libyan President Moammar Qaddafi, during a meeting at the Malacanang presidential palace late Wednesday.

Aside from saying that the Libyan government was interested in investing in the palm oil industry, Estrada did not give other details of his talks with Qaddafi's son.

Qaddafi brokered in 1976 an agreement between then president Ferdinand Marcos and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), which called for the establishment of an autonomous Muslim region in Mindanao and help in on-and-off peace negotiations until the MNLF agreed in 1996 to end its more than 20 years of insurgency.