Manila revives peace talks with separatists

Manila revives peace talks with separatists

MANILA (Agencies): The Philippines said on Thursday it was
reviving peace talks with Muslim separatists, a change of policy
from disgraced former president Joseph Estrada who launched a
full-scale war on the rebels last year.

Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita said President Gloria Arroyo
would announce members of a new government negotiating panel on
Friday when she visits the southern island of Mindanao, where the
Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has been fighting for an
Islamic state for decades.

Arroyo's trip will be limited to Cagayan de Oro, a largely
Christian city about 60 km (35 miles) from the nearest battle
zone.

Arroyo would likely order a suspension of military operations
"to develop an atmosphere conducive to the peace talks", Ermita
told reporters.

Talks with the MILF broke down in August last year after the
military overran several rebel bases in a major offensive ordered
by Estrada, who was overthrown in a "people power" revolt on Jan.
20.

In September, the MILF called for a "jihad", or holy war,
against Manila. Police blamed a series of bomb blasts in the
capital at the end of last year on Muslim rebels, but the MILF
denied responsibility.

The military estimates MILF strength at over 15,000.

A smaller separatist group, the fundamentalist Abu Sayyaf,
operates mainly on the tiny islands of Basilan and Jolo, off the
Mindanao mainland.

The Abu Sayyaf gained international attention last year when
it seized dozens of foreign and Filipino hostages from nearby
Malaysian isles and from Jolo. Most of the hostages were released
later on ransom or escaped, leaving American Jeffrey Schilling
and Filipino Roland Ullah still in the group's hands.

Ermita said Arroyo was also keen on reopening talks with the
communist rebels, who operate mainly in the northern and central
regions of the country.

Talks with the communists, who have been fighting for a
Marxist for more than three decades, collapsed in May 1999 after
the rebels accused Manila of violating preliminary agreements.

Military officials said on Thursday that some 50 MILF rebels
executed five tribesmen, took nine others hostage and looted
their remote southern village.

The MILF separatists attacked on Tuesday evening after Manobo
tribesmen refused to support the rebel movement with food and
cash contributions, said Lt. Col. Danilo Servando, a military
spokesman.

He said the rebels entered Kutungan village, some 900
kilometers southeast of Manila, firing indiscriminately and
rounding up 14 men. They shot five point-blank and took the other
nine to use as human shields in fighting with government troops,
Servando said.

The Manobo are a mostly animist indigenous people who
generally live off farming and fishing in the strife-torn
southern region of Mindanao.

The attack came three days after the MILF raided another
southern village, prompting tribesmen to fight back with spears
and arrows.

Also on Thursday, Philippine legislators wound up their work
after impeaching the corruption-hounded president Joseph Estrada,
a Herculean task that led to his ouster but laid waste to their
principal law-making duties.

As the Senate and the House of Representatives adjourn for
three months for campaigning for the May 14 general elections,
Arroyo's government will be operating on last year's budget.

A landmark bill to privatize the debt-laden state electric
utility also failed to make it. Officials said this would turn
off the tap on at least one billion dollars in foreign aid and
potentially exposes the country to power shortages after 2005.

Senate president Aquilino Pimentel said the legislature's
scorecard was "so so" but "hopefully, we'll be able to recover in
the next Congress."