KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/04 May) — The government wants greater public participation in the Mindanao peace process, Secretary Teresita Quintos-Deles of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process said. Secretary Teresita Quintos-Deles . OPAPP PhotoDeles appealed Thursday to the public to study the issues surrounding the peace process between the Government of the [...]

KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/03 May)— The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), under its new leader, Akihiko Tanaka, has vowed to increase aid to Mindanao once the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) ink a final peace agreement. Tanaka made the assurance Tuesday in a meeting with top MILF officials at the rebels’ Camp Darapanan [...]

2nd of three parts KUALA LUMPUR (MindaNews/29 April) –  Contrary to popular perception, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) is not a product of a peace agreement but a creation of RA 6734, the Organic Act passed on August 1, 1989 as mandated by the 1987 Constitution. The Philippine government under the Ramos administration [...]

KUALA LUMPUR (MindaNews/29 April) —  The Office of the Secretary-General of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) was a no-show as an observer in the April 24 talks between the Philippine government (GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Peace in Southern Philippines, Ambassador Sayed Al Masry. was [...]

KUALA LUMPUR (MindaNews/28 April) – The document that the Philippine government (GPH) and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)  signed here Tuesday would have been signed last month had the GPH peace panel not introduced amendments to four of the ten principles already agreed upon in February. Sources from parties involved in the negotiations told MindaNews [...]

KUALA LUMPUR (MindaNews/28 April) – From the Regional Autonomous Government under President Ferdinand Marcos in 1979 to the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) under President Corazon Aquino in 1990, will the “new autonomous political entity” (NAPE) that may be set up within the administration of President Benigno Simeon Aquino finally be the fulfillment of that elusive Bangsamoro dream for self-determination?

KUALA LUMPUR (MindaNews/26 April) –  Elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), which the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front  will replace with a “new autonomous political entity,” will proceed as scheduled on May 13, 2013 if no peace agreement is reached by the peace panels this year. “Government is very [...]

KUALA LUMPUR (MindaNews/26 April) –  “Should we celebrate or just be hopeful?”  Amina Rasul, President of the Philippine Council on Islam and Democracy (PCID) asked in a Mindanao e-group about the “GPH-MILF Decision Points on Principles as of April 2012” that the two peace panels signed Tuesday at the Palace of the Golden Horses hotel [...]

KUALA LUMPUR (MindaNews/24 April) – Declaring that the “status quo is unacceptable,” the Philippine government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front peace panels today agreed to work for the creation of a “new autonomous political entity in place of the ARMM” (Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao). The agreement is contained in the “GPH-MILF Decision Points on [...]

KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/23 April) – Power and wealth sharing, territory and transitional mechanisms and duration would remain the major bones of contention in the Mindanao peace process that the government wants to end this year, an official said. Rosalie C. Romero, assistant secretary at the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, said [...]

COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/02 April) – The peace process between government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) can succeed because the paramount concerns of both parties – territorial integrity and national sovereignty for the government and right to self-determination (RSD) for the MILF — are politically acceptable and the other issues are negotiable, Cotabato Archbishop [...]

 COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/01 April) –  The executive director of the Institute for Autonomy and Governance (IAG)  here wants the government peace panel  (GPH) to abandon the “3 for 1” formula it proposed to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), claiming it is merely a formula to reform the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). “’Three [...]

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (MindaNews/01 April) – Peace advocates in Southeast Asia urged the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) over the weekend to expand the mandate of its conflict resolution mechanism to include internal conflicts within its member states, among them the decades-old Moro rebellion in Mindanao. Members of the Working Group on Peacebuilding of [...]

COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/22 March) — The Philippine government (GPH) and Moro Islamic Liberation Front  (MILF)  ended their three-day peace negotiations Wednesday with no significant agreement reached on the substantive issues of power and wealth sharing but agreed to approve the request of the  Office of the Secretary-General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (formerly Conference) [...]

DAVAO CITY  (MindaNews/19 March) –  The Philippine government (GPH) and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) resumed peace negotiations in Kuala Lumpur Monday morning, 12 days before the end of the first quarter but instead of  forging an agreement by March 31, the two panels appear headed for a stalemate, government maintaining as it did in [...]

Last of two parts DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/19March) – By early 2001, the Aquino administration set out to have the August 8, 2011 elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) postponed and synchronized with the May 13, 2013 mid-term polls and, in the interim, to allow the President to appoint OICs in the ARMM [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/18 March) –  The Philippine government (GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace panels resume negotiations Monday in Kuala Lumpur, 12 days before the end of the first quarter, the period within which both panels had hoped to forge a peace agreement. But a comprehensive peace agreement does not appear to [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/18 March) — Where have all the young men and women gone, 44 years after the Jabidah Massacre sparked a revolution to liberate the Bangsamoro Homeland?

ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews/16 February) – Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo said he favors the proposal to give two regional bodies of Region IX a bigger role in the peace process between the Government of the Philippines peace panel and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Local officials in the region have proposed to make the [...]

KUALA LUMPUR (MindaNews/15 February) – The government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace panels have agreed to invite two consultants each when they resume talks in March but gave no hint in their Joint Statement that an agreement or agreements could be signed “within the first quarter” as targeted by government. The two [...]

KUALA LUMPUR (MindaNews/15 February)  —  Only women could have thought of what could be a first, worldwide, in contemporary peace-making history: a Valentine’s gift to  the peace panel of a revolutionary group. The second day of the three-day peace talks fell on a Tuesday, Valentine’s Day and just as soon as the panels sat down [...]

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/27 January) – Two war-torn villages in Kabacan town in North Cotabato are the newest additions to the beneficiaries of the core shelter program of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) under its project Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan (PAMANA), a local official said. Buenaventura Pacania, of the Municipal Planning and [...]

DAVAO CITY  (MindaNews/10 January) — The two panels are on the same page: government peace panel chair Marvic Leonen wants a peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) forged “within the first quarter;” MILF chair Mohagher Iqbal says they want to “finish this process as soon as possible” but both have yet to [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/9 January) – The government peace panel has named two of its consultants in the negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) as regular members. Dr. Hamid Barra, who has been consultant since 2010, replaces Upi Mayor Ramon Piang, a member of the panel representing Indigenous Peoples. “Being a local executive, a [...]

KUALA  LUMPUR (MindaNews/11 December) – First there was only one: Prof. Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, University of the Philippines professor of political science,  the lone woman in the Philippine Government (GPH)-Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace negotiations, representing GPH. This week, there were three of them across the negotiating table at the Executive Boardroom of the Royale [...]

KUALA LUMPUR  (MindaNews/07 December) – The Philippine government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front peace panels will return here next month after meeting with their respective principals – President Benigno Simeon Aquino and  MILF chair Al Haj Murad Ebrahim – on the “substantive points”  to craft a mutually acceptable peace formula. The one-page six-paragraph statement was [...]

KUALA LUMPUR (MindaNews/06 December) – There is no mention of “three for one” or “Bangsamoro substate”  in the ongoing three-day peace talks between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) but a new peace formula is emerging from both proposals laid down on the negotiating table. Like it was on Monday, members [...]

KUALA LUMPUR (MindaNews/06 December)  — While the Philippine government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace panels are meeting here,  representatives of the Moro National Liberation Front  (MNLF) and the MILF are in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for a two-day meeting initiated by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). The meeting started Tuesday [...]

COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/07 November) —  The ceasefire committees of the government peace panel (GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are meeting with the International Monitoring Team (IMT) here on Wednesday, November 9, to finalize the schedule of the joint probe on the October 18 clash in Al-barka, Basilan. Admiral Adib of Malaysia, Deputy [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/03 Nov) – The Philippine government (GPH) and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace panels agreed in Kuala Lumpur today (Thursday) to “move forward on the substantive agenda” of the talks and meet again “very soon for this purpose.” At the same time they agreed to await recommendations relating to the review of [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/03 November) – The government (GPH) and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace panels are meeting in Kuala Lumpur today, 72 days after they adjourned their talks on August 23. Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Quintos-Deles confirmed the meeting. “Yes, meeting currently ongoing today in KL. It is an informal meeting [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/29 Oct) –  The methods differ but the calls remain the same: No to all-out war, Yes to Peace. “Running priest” Fr. Robert Reyes will lead an “all out-run for all-out peace” Sunday morning in Davao City to mobilize support  for the peace process while  caravan for peace will move from Cagayan de [...]

ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews/28 October) —  The military is not undertaking pursuit operations against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Basilan but has filed a complaint against them through the government peace panel’s Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH). “If they want me to attack Al Barka now, we can do that any [...]

KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/25 October) — The European Union Delegation to the Philippines has urged the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to strengthen their coordination to avoid deadly clashes and for the International Monitoring Team (IMT) to conduct an independent probe on recent skirmishes in parts of Mindanao. The EU Delegation made the [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/10 October) — The government peace panel will meet on Wednesday to discuss calls made for the release of detained National Democratic Front (NDF) peace consultants in light of the latter’s release of its captives in Mindanao over the weekend, a peace panel member said Monday. “The recent releases of their [...]

KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/03 October)—The central committee of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has approved a resolution formally expelling breakaway leader Ameril Umra Kato and his men from the group, a rebel official said Monday. Von Al Haq, MILF spokesperson, confirmed the resolution of the Front officially dropping Kato and his men, saying he saw [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/25 September) – Talking peace with the Philippine government is like flying a plane where one may experience jitters despite having done it many times, said Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace panel chair Mohagher Iqbal. “You’re flying the airplane many times. Even if you are flying the airplane many times, it does [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/18 September) – At least 2,800 Catholic educators from all over the country are expected to gather here to discuss Peace during the three-day national convention of the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) which will start on September 21, the International Day of Peace. Now celebrating its 70th year, CEAP, an [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/15 Sept) – The demand for the release of the National Democratic Front’s (NDF) detained peace consultants prior to the resumption of formal talks with the government is not “just any precondition” but an “expressed requisite to peace negotiations as stipulated in The Hague Joint Declaration” both panels agreed to adhere [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/15 September) – Civil society in Mindanao is asking the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace panels to develop a working draft from the two draft proposals currently on the table because “what is lacking in one draft can be filled in by the contents of the other draft.” “The [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/13 Sept) – The problem with how the government deals with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is its “fragmented approach” to the peace talks, the former vice chair of the government peace panel lamented in a peace forum here Monday. “The GPH deviated from the Declaration of Continuity it forged [...]

COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/10 September) – “Learn lessons from our mistakes,” Parouk Hussin, the Foreign Affairs chief of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) who became the second and last MNLF official who served as governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said five years ago when asked what advice he would give the Moro Islamic Liberation Front which was then nearing an impasse in the peace negotiations.

COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/09 September) – The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) is 21 years old but the“autonomous region” set-up or “experiment” as many refer to it, including Malacanang, the Moro National Liberation Front and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, has been existing for the last 32 years, spanning six administrations..

nd of a series COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/08 September) –  The supposed grant of autonomy by the first Aquino administration to what would be the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) mandated by the 1987 Constitution  preceded the Local Governments Act of 1991,  its first set of officials under Zacaria Candao elected in 1990. Twenty-one years [...]

COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/07 September) – When President Benigno Simeon Aquino III met with Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chair Al Haj Murad Ebrahim in Japan on August 4 to talk peace, he did what his mother did 25 years ago: meet with rebel leader Nur Misuari of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in his homeland in Sulu, to talk peace. Aquino the son would have wanted to meet with Murad anywhere, even in his camp in Darapanan, Maguindanao.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/07 September) — Local and international peace organizations and church leaders are organizing a two-day conference that will attempt to help find means and ways to push the Mindanao peace process forward. Dubbed the 2nd National Solidarity Conference on Mindanao (NSCM-2), the gathering at the Conference Hall of the Bishops Ulama Conference here [...]

DARAPANAN, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao (MindaNews/07 September) –   Moro Islamic Liberation Front chair Al Haj Murad Ebrahim says contentious and divisive issues it the peace negotiations can be resolved if both government and the MILF panels treat each other as partners instead of adversaries. Murad said he acknowledges there are contentious and divisive issues such as [...]

CAMP DARAPANAN, Maguindanao (MindaNews/06 September) — The Moro Islamic Liberation Front has called on government to respect the agreements reached by both parties in the past 14 years of peace negotiations. The call was made by MILF Chair Al-haj Murad Ebrahim who said in a press conference here that they really want the peace process [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/06 September) — The Aquino government has expressed optimism the expected arrival of a Malaysian mediator will help resolve issues besetting the peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. In a press briefing Tuesday in Malacanang, Secretary Ramon “Ricky” Carandang, Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office announced that a Malaysian mediator [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/06 September) – The peace panels of government and the National Democratic Front should “exert more effort in ironing out” snags that led to the postponement of talks on the Comprehensive Agreement on Socio-Economic Reforms (Caser), a church leader said on Monday. In a phone interview, Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) Bishop [...]