Negotiators fly to KL to finalize Mindanao peace pact

AFP FILE PHOTO

MANILA—The peace panels of the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front are in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to finalize the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) that will be signed at Malacanang on March 27.

“They are now in Kuala Lumpur to put the finishing touches on the CAB,” Commissioner Abdulla Camlian of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission said Friday at the Conference on Electoral Systems and Political Parties under the Bangsamoro Ministerial Form of Government.

Camlian read a message that MILF chief negotiator, Prof. Mohagher Iqbal, was supposed to give at the conference, organized by the Asia Foundation and the British Embassy in Manila.

Lawyer Jose Luis Martin Gascon of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, who read the message of government chief negotiator Prof. Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, said the final CAB document could be completed on Friday or Saturday.

In a statement, the OPAPP said that more than a thousand people are to attend the “big event” at Malacañang.

Ferrer and Iqbal, as the chief negotiators, will sign the CAB with Malaysian Third Party Facilitator Tengku Dato’ Ab Ghafar Tengku Mohamed signing as witness.

“President Benigno Aquino III, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Quintos Deles and MILF chief Al Haj Murad Ebrahim are expected to deliver their messages before attendees coming from the international community and various sectors,” the statement said.

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