COTABATO CITY – A week after more than half of the Malaysian peace monitors left, Central Mindanao has remained peaceful, according to military and Moro rebels.

“It is quiet and both sides religiously abide by the provisions of the ceasefire accord,” said Col. Julieto Ando, spokesperson of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division that covers a bigger portion of the region.

Ghazali Jaafar, Moro Islamic Liberation Front vice chair for political affairs, said his group “as in the past, has been adhering to the ceasefire.” He explained that the joint ceasefire committee and its anticrime mechanism, the Ad-hoc Joint Action Group (Ahjag), had filled up the void following the Malaysian pullout.

Malaysia has said it will not stop from supporting the peace process despite the pullback of about half of its peacekeepers from the International Monitoring Team (IMT). The group is composed of unarmed police and military officers from Brunei, Libya and Malaysia, and a rehabilitation specialist from Japan.

Both Ando and Jaafar believe peace will remain in most of the region because the IMT still exists. The team “is still there, some Malaysian peace observers along with those from Libya and Brunei are still functioning as mediators,” Ando told the Inquirer.
Jaafar agreed, saying that no ceasefire violation had been reported since the Malaysians left on May 10. Their departure has not dampened the enthusiasm of the MILF’s coordinating committee on the cessation of hostilities, he added.

Brig. Gen. Reynaldo Sealana, chair of the government’s ceasefire committee, said the panel and its MILF counterpart must strengthen their presence on the ground to cushion the impact of the pullout.

Mediation will continue, however, retired Brig. Gen. Rodolfo Garcia, the government chief negotiator, said.

On Thursday, the military in Basilan accused the MILF of initiating attacks on Philippine Marines that resulted in a brief firefight. No casualties were reported.

Last week, Libya approved Malacañang’s request for its government to assume the IMT leadership, but the MILF said any change in the group’s command structure had to be agreed first by both the Philippine government and the rebels’ peace panels.

Dante Jimenez, founding chair of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC), has urged President Macapagal-Arroyo to deploy more Muslim policemen in flash-point areas in Mindanao to help pacify local communities, now apprehensive of an adverse impact of the IMT pullout.

The government and the MILF should also resume the peace talks immediately to allay fears of renewed hostilities, he said.

“The ceasefire is just interim and not forever. What people in Mindanao want is a peace agreement with Moro factions. A peace agreement that is strong, lasting, and most importantly, acceptable to all sectors in the area,” Jimenez said after holding a dialogue here on local security and peace concerns.

Forging a lasting peace accord is vital for the development of the region, he said.