MANILA, Philippines -- Malaysian Foreign Minister Rais Yatim will hold talks in Manila with Filipino officials after Kuala Lumpur said it would pull out its monitoring team from troubled Mindanao, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs.

DFA officials said Rais would meet with Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo on Wednesday, when the latter is expected to ask Malaysia to keep its team in Mindanao where it is monitoring the ceasefire between government troops and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

The visit follows an announcement by Kuala Lumpur last month that it would not renew its monitoring contract once its current mandate expires in September.

The move has been widely seen as a sign of impatience with Manila over the slow pace of the peace talks with the separatist MILF.

Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Quevedo, meanwhile, warned Monday the pullout of the Malaysian contingent could trigger renewed violence in the region, pointing out that the monitoring team had greatly helped defuse conflicts between the government forces and MILF rebels.

Effect on hostilities

Quevedo also said that with Malaysia’s withdrawal, the contingents from Indonesia and Brunei would have to fill the resulting manpower vacuum.

Quevedo in a statement posted on the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) website said, “The impending withdrawal of Malaysian monitors would have a series of effects on the cessation of hostilities, not so much probably on the peace process as a whole, because Malaysia is committed to continuing as a mediator of the peace process.”

He said the presence in Mindanao of the International Monitoring Team largely composed of Malaysians had always been “important,” particularly when armed conflicts erupted. The Malaysian troopers, he pointed out, usually acted with speed to defuse the situation.

The archbishop further maintained that the Malaysian contingent’s influence stemmed from the large number of its troops in the IMT and the country’s being a key mediator in the peace process.

For his part, Cotabato Auxiliary Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo said in an interview aired over Church-run Radio Veritas that the pullout of the Malaysians had raised worries that there would be nobody to intervene in times of conflict.

No one to mediate

“They (Malaysians) are mediators, so without them there is a fear that nobody would mediate any longer, no one would negotiate or monitor violations on both sides,” Bagaforo said.

The MILF, he said, was not happy with the development because the presence of Malaysians gave assurances that they “will not be attacked by government troops.” He added that the government in turn could lose a mediator that allowed officials access to discussions with the Muslim secessionists when terms of the ceasefire were violated.

Other gov’ts to help

He said that other foreign governments had signified their intention to be part of the IMT, so both sides were hopeful that “we will be able to get a replacement of the monitoring team from Malaysia.”

The 12,000-strong MILF has been fighting since 1978 to set up an Islamic state in Mindanao.

The government and MILF signed a ceasefire in 2003 to open the way to peace talks hosted by Malaysia and other Islamic nations. A key stumbling block has been the extent of territory to be handed over to MILF.

The two sides struck a deal last November to create a Muslim homeland in the country’s south. That agreement was expected to lead to a peace accord, but further talks have not been successful.

Malaysian troops have made up the bulk of an international team that has been monitoring the ceasefire since 2004. The team includes officers from Brunei, Libya, Canada and Japan.

Since their deployment, violence between government and rebel forces has significantly decreased.

Britain announced last week that it would send experts in peace negotiations to the Philippines in the coming weeks to help restart the stalled talks.

The MILF on Monday welcomed the British offer.

“It is a positive development and we hope the British experts will arrive very soon so we can meet with them and discuss the peace process in Mindanao,” said rebel spokesperson Eid Kabalu. Agence France-Presse; Jeannette I. Andrade