FILE PHOTO
ILIGAN CITY, Philippines—Government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front negotiators will meet on Monday in Kuala Lumpur for the 37th round of talks which could be their last in the 16-year peace negotiations facilitated by Malaysia.
The scheduled three-day meeting will principally tackle the remaining three annexes to the preliminary Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) that the parties inked last October 15. These are for power-sharing, wealth-sharing and normalization.
“At the rate we are going, our upcoming exploratory meeting might probably be the last,” MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal told the Inquirer by phone.
A fourth annex, on transitional arrangements and modalities (TAM), was signed February.
When done, the four annexes plus the FAB will comprise the comprehensive agreement that will spell out the measures to address the Moro people’s aspiration for self-governance.
Government chief negotiator Miriam Coronel-Ferrer expressed optimism the comprehensive agreement would be ready for signing by April.
After last month‘s breakthrough with TAM, Coronel-Ferrer likened the negotiations to the crucial stretch, called the Heartbreak Hill, of the famous Boston Marathon.
“So we’re halfway through that Heartbreak Hill and soon we will finish the marathon,” she said.
David Gorman, outgoing country representative of the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, which is part of the International Contact Group of the Mindanao peace process, described the parties as “just so close to the finish line.”
Gorman said the parties “crossed Heartbreak Hill” during last month’s meeting.
In a recent post on the MILF website, Iqbal was quoted as saying that “the issues concerning wealth sharing are already settled but not yet signed while power sharing is almost a done deal.”
As the negotiators prepare to head for Kuala Lumpur, peace groups launched a series of send-off rallies urging them to be steadfast and not be derailed by the ongoing crisis in Sabah.
The peace rallies started March 20 in Manila. Another one was held in Davao on March 21.
On March 25, as the 37th meeting convenes in Kuala Lumpur, synchronized peace rallies will be held in Cotabato City; Pikit, North Cotabato; Davao City; and in Metro Manila “in support of the peace talks.”
“Let us show our massive support to the peace panels given the venomous call for blood and war in Sabah. Let us not allow the Sabah issue to be used as an excuse to derail the talks,” said a statement of the Mindanao Peoples Caucus.