MANILA, Philippines--If nothing else works, call a musical group.

After years of trying to broker a peace deal with secessionist rebels in Mindanao, the government has tapped the Apo Hiking Society to promote a public dialogue on the peace agreement that it hopes to hammer out by June.

No, the trio of Jim Paredes, Danny Javier and Buboy Garrovillo will not be singing a new tune, or mounting a concert for peace.

The Apo are appearing in TV and radio ads exhorting the public to take part in a series of dialogues that will be mounted from Luzon to Mindanao from February to March.

“They share our aspirations for peace and love of country, and they have a good image,’’ Annabelle Abaya, presidential adviser on the peace process, whose office produced the ads, said by phone Saturday.

Interact at dialogues

Javier, who now lives in General Santos City and works with ethnic tribes, has even offered to act as a “spokesperson of peace,’’ she said.

And depending on their schedule, the Apo, which is disbanding after 40 years and is holding farewell shows until May, would also be asked to interact with the people at the dialogues, Abaya said.

“They readily said yes when we asked them to do it, without conditions,’’ she said.

The Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (Opapp) is mounting what it called a “reflective dialogue,’’ as a parallel move to the fresh negotiations between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Consultation

Both parties swapped draft agreements in Kuala Lumpur last week in a bid to end a long-drawn insurgency that has killed over 120,000 people and hobbled development in most parts of Mindanao.

The government is pulling all stops to get a final agreement inked before President Macapagal-Arroyo steps down on June 30.

The idea of a dialogue is to get people to air their sentiments and share their views on issues being tackled at the negotiating table, and in effect, avoid the debacle of a previous peace agreement.

“We have to emphasize that talking is not limited to negotiations. It includes people who have something to say. Mindanao is their homeland. They live the consequences of whatever decision they’re making. So we have to consult them,’’ Abaya said.

Lessons learned

The government seems to have learned its lesson from the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain whose signing in mid-2008 was aborted following a storm of protests and charges that it was drawn up in secrecy.

It was eventually voided and declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

In an attempt to go beyond the “debate format,’’ the Opapp will tap speakers from the academe to expound on the positions of the government and the MILF, and then hold group discussions.

The agency plans to hire two speakers and draw 300 participants in each of the 12 dialogues, nine of which will be held in Mindanao.

“We don’t want a debate. People close their minds and ears when you have a debate,’’ Abaya said. “We call it reflective dialogue because it promotes thinking— thinking for oneself.’’

The topics in the dialogue would include the idea of wealth-sharing and control of natural resources, among others, according to Abaya, who has read the government draft but isn’t “at liberty’’ to discuss its key provisions.