NEWSFLASH

GOVT-MILF PEACE TALKS RESUME NEXT WEEK

Cotabato City, March 4, 2000 The Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace negotiating yesterday signed a joint communique reaffirming their sincerity to pursue an 'enduring and lasting peaceful solution' to the armed conflict in Mindanao.

Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado had challenged the GRP and the MILF peace panels to make compromises and find common areas of agreement so that a peaceful settlement may be reached.

GRP panel Chairman Lt. Gen. (ret.) Edgardo E. Batenga and acting MILF panel Chairman and Committee on Information chairman Ustadzh Mahagher Iqbal reiterated their commitment to the peace talks.

The two sides agreed to cluster the nine agenda items presented by the MILF for discussion into six aggrupations: ancestral domain/agrarian related issues, destruction of properties and victims of war/displaced and landless Bangsamoro, human rights issues, social and cultural discrimination/corruption of the mind and moral fiber, economic inequities and widespread poverty, and exploitation of natural resources.

Both panels agreed to meet again next week, with the following schedule: 21st GRP-MILF Technical Committee meeting on March 6-7, at Estosan Garden Hotel, Cotabato City; and the 3rd round of the GRP-MILF Formal Peace Talks on March 8-9 in the same venue.

Lawyer Napis B. Bidin, MILF peace panel, said that with the new composition of the negotiating peace panels and the technical cmmittees of both parties, both sides are now pursuing a very smooth approach to reach a final peace agreement before the end of the term of President Joseph Estrada.