DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/13 December) – Informal peace talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are “expected to start shortly after the President ‘s official visit to Qatar, possibly by Dec. 22,” the Office of the Press Secretary (OPS) reported Friday.

The report did not explain why informal talks could begin “possibly by Dec. 22,” which is a week after the President’s arrival from Qatar.

At present, the government peace panel that will negotiate with the MILF, has yet to be reconstituted.

Only the peace panel chair, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Rafael Seguis, has been named. The earlier panel was dissolved on September 3 this year, following the aborted signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD).

The OPS report said President Arroyo is arriving in Qatar today for a three-day mission to “enlist the support of Qatar in the quest for lasting peace in Mindanao,” meet with top business executives there and meet with overseas Filipino workers in the Middle East.

“On the government’s Mindanao peace initiative, President Arroyo said that the Philippines could learn something from Qatar which brokered the settlement of the Lebanese internal conflict mounted by Muslim separatists,” the report added.

The report quoted Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (PAPP) Hermogenes Esperon Jr. as saying that the Philippines views Qatar as an “international guarantor” in the peace negotiations between the government and the MILF.

Esperon said the MILF has been calling for international guarantors in the peace process and Qatar could be one of them.

Qatar, though a member of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), is not a member of the OIC committee tasked to look into the conflict between the Philippine government and the Bangsamoro through the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) which has been holding an observer status in the OIC since 1977.

The MILF broke away from the MNLF after the failed 1976 peace pact and its peace process since the Arroyo administration assumed power in January 2001, has been facilitated by Malaysia, a member of the OIC Committee.

In the 1970s, the Committee was initially a Committee of Four to deal with the Philippine government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). By the time the Ramos administration negotiated peace with the MNLF, it had become a Committee of the Six chaired by Indonesia. Its members were Libya, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Senegal and Somalia.

In 2000, it was expanded into the Ministerial Committee of the Eight, to include neighboring countries with predominantly Muslim populations -- Malaysia and Brunei.

In November 2007, the Committee of the Eight was transformed into the Peace Committee for Southern Philippines (PCSP), an 11-nation expanded version of what used to be the Ministerial Committee of the Eight headed by Indonesia, now including Egypt, Turkey and Pakistan.

The PCSP is tasked to review with the Philippine government and the MNLF, the implementation of the 1996 peace agreement.

The government and MILF peace panels are expected to craft a peace agreement that will build on the gains of the 1996 peace pact.

The OPS report said the President will “meet with top executives of Middle Eastern companies employing Filipinos” shortly upon arrival and later in the day, with the Filipino community at the Sheraton Dohal Hotel and Resort, where she’s staying during her Qatar visit.

Ms Arroyo will also meet with Philippine ambassadors in the Middle East countries, home of thousands of OFWs.  “The President’s session with the Philippine envoys is expected to touch on the impact of the global economic debacle on Filipino job placements abroad,” the OPS said. (MindaNews)

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