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RP forming new peace panel for talks with MILF
MANILA -- The Philippine government expects to finalize by next week a short list of possible members of a new peace panel for talks with the rebel Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Hermogenes Esperon said on Saturday.
メWe are already (re)constituting the panel but not as fast as they (MILF) would want to. We are moving towards that (formation of the panel) because the President (Gloria Macapaga-Arroyo) wants to have it as soon as possible so that the peace talks could be resumed,モ he said in a phone interview.
The formation of a new peace panel however is only one three conditions set by the MILF for the extension of the mandate of the International Monitoring Team in Mindanao.
The government had disbanded its peace panel after talks collapsed following the aborted signing of a landmark agreement on ancestral domain last August 5.
The mandate of the Malaysian-led IMT expires Sunday. The rebel front has also asked for the suspension of military operations against the three MILF comanders and their forces accused of leading attacks against several towns in Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur provinces and the lifting of the arrest warrants against them. The government has rejected the MILF demands.
The 12 remaining Malaysian peacekeepers will leave Sunday morning from Cotabato City to Malaysia, while the rest of the 29-team will remain in the country to wait for instructions from their governments, Esperon said.
He said some 12 people, all of them from Mindanao, were included in the shortlist of possible members of the governmentユs peace panel. Among those being considered are a former envoy, former congressman and a lawyer.
He said there will also be a panel of advisers from Congress, the business sector and the academe. Celerina Monte/DMS
