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Manila: The government may find itself hard pressed for time if it continues to delay the signing of a peace agreement in Mindanao, a Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) official said.
Khaled Musa, deputy chairman of the MILF committee on information, was quoted by the front's Luwaran website as saying that because of the continued procrastination by the Arroyo government, the burden of finding a solution to the Moro issue could fall on her successor.
"It is barely more than two years are left of President Gloria Arroyo's term of office and 2009 would be a busy year for her in choosing the best bet in 2010 presidential elections," Musa said while pointing out that the government had squandered time in treating the peace process as a counter-insurgency issue rather than a problem-solving mechanism to address the centuries-old problem in Mindanao.
Commitment
Musa said that a peace deal can still be possible if the government is really committed to signing agreement. However, he doubted this possibility in view of the latest ripples in the peace talks.
He said peace negotiations between the government and the MILF had been hamstrung by Manila's insistence that both parties sign a memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain on three strands only namely, concept, resources, and territory, minus governance.
The MILF had insisted the issue on governance be included in the parlays if it were to continue talks with the government.
The government and the MILF have started their peace parlays in January 1997 under the presidency of Fidel Ramos, continued in the time of President Joseph Estrada but was aborted when he ordered an all-out war against the MILF in March 2000.
After Estrada's downfall Arroyo came to power and the peace talks resumed. She abandoned the all-out war policy of her predecessor in favour of an all-out peace approach.
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