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Government negotiators and Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels have agreed on the issue of ancestral domain and formal signing has been set next month, said Mohagher Iqbal, chief MILF peace negotiator.

“We have already initialed the Memorandum of Agreement on the Ancestral Domain at ten p.m. tonight. There will be formal signing on August. The document is secured from further discussion,” Iqbal told the Mindanao Examiner by phone from Kuala Lumpur where the peace talks were held.

Rebel leaders have accused the Arroyo government of reneging on previous agreements on the Muslim ancestral domain that led to the failure of the peace talks in Malaysia, which is mediating in the negotiations.

Government peace negotiators led by Rodolfo Garcia tried to change an earlier deal on the ancestral domain that led to the collapse of the talks on Friday, Iqbal said.

President Gloria Arroyo’s peace adviser Hermogenes Esperon flew Sunday to Malaysia to restart the stalled talks and eventually agreeing to the rebel demand for a separate homeland.

The MILF also wanted the August 11 elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) postponed until after the peace agreement is signed. The five-province ARMM is included in the ancestral domain, including some areas in Zamboanga Peninsula, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani provinces in Mindanao where there are large communities of Muslims and indigenous tribes. And also Palawan Island in central Philippines.

The formal signing of the agreement on the ancestral domain was originally set on August 5. Arroyo has supported the proposal to postpone the ARMM polls for the peace talks to succeed. Arroyo is also expected to include the MILF peace talks in her State of the Nation Address on Monday morning.

Iqbal said the formal signing would be held in Malaysia with Esperon, Garcia and Secretary Norberto Gonzales, Arroyo’s security adviser.

Esperon said there is need to amend the Constitution to allow plebiscite on areas under the ancestral domain that would make up the so-called Bangsamoro Juridical Entity and give Muslims their own homeland.

The MILF previously said it will not sign any peace deal with the Arroyo government unless its demand for self-determination is granted. Last year, peace talks were also stalled after government negotiators reneged on the same deal.

Arroyo opened peace talks with the MILF in 2001 after deposing President Joseph Estrada in a bloodless revolution. But despite the peace talks, sporadic fighting between rebels and soldiers still continue in Mindanao with both sides accusing each other of violating a fragile truce accord.

The MILF is fighting for the establishment of a strict Islamic state in Mindanao, whose more than 18 million populations include about 4 million Muslims.

The Arroyo government previously offered the MILF the whole of the Muslim autonomous region, which is composed of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi which are among the poorest in the country torn by strife and clan wars since its creation in 1989. The MILF flatly rejected the offer and insisted on self-determination.

But peace negotiators earlier this month signed an agreement in Kuala Lumpur that will empower the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity to build, develop and maintain its own institutions, inclusive of civil service, electoral, financial and banking, education, legislation, legal, economic, police and internal security force, judicial system and correctional institutions necessary for developing a progressive Muslim society. (Mindanao Examiner)

Gonzales was in Davao City at the weekend and spoke at a forum participated by members of civil society groups and non-government organizations. He also explained the real story behind the ZTE controversy and current political situation in the country.

“The Filipino people at the moment are not interested in people power. We are not going towards any people power revolt. Most people do not want to attend protest actions,” Gonzales said at the forum organized by the Concerned Dabawenyos for Peace and Development and the Centre for Strategic Studies.

Since the surfacing of Rodolfo Lozada, a self-confessed witness, who alleged that a P200-million bribe was offered by Elections chief Benjamin Abalos Sr., to Romulo Neri, then Economic Secretary. This allegation opened a Philippine Senate investigation that caused sectors from the students, business and civil society to call for President Gloria Arroyo to resign.

Abalos has resigned as head of the Commission on Elections to pave the way for an impartial investigations.

At the forum, Gonzales explained that the prospect of change in the presidency is remote, “because President Arroyo is too strong”.

He said the important elements found in Edsa 1 revolution are not present in the current situation. Bishops, priest and nuns bearing rosaries in rallies is not around.”They do not join now”.

The 1986 people power is a miracle, he said. “Mother Mary made Edsa 1 possible.”

Gonzales said “the trouble is, government is not allowed to do what it should do to address problems of the country.” Government needs a communication system like the ZTE project to synchronize communication system of the country.

“Politicians in the opposition realize the futility of the present exercise calling for the resignation of the president, but they continue to do their tricks to gain the media mileage they badly need for the upcoming national elections in 2010”, the Secretary Gonzales finally said. (Candido Apararece, Jr.)

MAGUINDANAO (Mindanao Examiner / 13 Jul) – The Philippines’ largest Muslim rebel group, Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), have put its forces in highest alert following a bloody clashes between soldiers and guerrillas that killed 4 dozen people from both sides.

Fourteen soldiers were killed and ten of those who died in Tuesday fighting were decapitated after troops searching for a kidnapped Italian Catholic priest Giancarlo Bossi strayed into a territory of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Al-Barka town.

At least 30 gunmen were also killed in the clashes, said Marines Col. Ramiro Alivio, the island’s military chief. He said troops fought about 500 MILF and Abu Sayyaf militants, whose group is tied to al-Qaeda terror network.

The MILF, the country’s largest Muslim rebel group negotiating peace with Manila, admitted the attack and said rebels were defending their stronghold.

President Gloria Arroyo ordered troops to hunt those responsible in the gruesome attack.

"The government will account for the perpetrators of this heinous attack in line with the rule of law, through the mechanisms of the peace process. The Armed Forces are duty-bound to hunt down and arrest those who treacherously killed and beheaded the soldiers," Arroyo said on Thursday.

On Friday, acting Defense chief Norberto Gonzales said the government will not allow the attackers go unpunished. “We will not allow those responsible (in the beheading of the soldiers) unpunished,” he told the dzRH radio network in Manila.

Gonzales blamed the MILF for the attack. “We have a peace process and then they will attack the soldiers. And we saw (on television reports and news videos) what really happened and we will not allow those responsible in the killings to go unpunished,” he said.

“If they want to pull out (from the peace talks) then go ahead,” Gonzales said after being told in the interview that the MILF may threaten to pull out from the peace negotiations if Manila insists on blaming the rebel for violating a six-year old cease-fire accord.

Mohagher Iqbal, the chief MILF peace negotiator, accused the military of violating the truce after some 100 marine soldiers encroached inside a rebel stronghold in the guise of searching for Bossi, who was kidnapped June 10 in Zamboanga Sibugay province.

Iqbal said rebel forces are in heightened alert because of government pronouncements that troops would launch new offensive in Basilan. "The MILF is in high alert right now," he said.

Peace talks were stalled since last year after MILF, which is fighting for a separate Muslim homeland, rejected a government proposal for a limited autonomy.

Police and military authorities also tagged Akiddin Abdusallam, an MILF leader, is holding Bossi for ransom, a charge strongly denied by Iqbal, saying, the kidnapper is a member of the Abu Sayyaf.

Arroyo said the MILF must stand apart from the Abu Sayyaf group, blamed for the spate of kidnappings of foreigners and terrorism in the South.

“If the perpetrators are Abu Sayyaf, the MILF must stand apart from these terrorists and allow their pursuit and interdiction by government forces. If MILF forces are culpable, then they must be accounted for by the ceasefire committees and be brought to justice,” Arroyo said, adding, “There can be no excuses or alibis for these acts of savagery.”

Intelligence sources in Basilan have also implicated unnamed politicians who were allegedly supplying the Abu Sayyaf and with mortar rockets, weapons and munitions.

Maj. Gen. Nelson Allaga, Philippine Marines chief, said they will pursue the Abu Sayyaf even if the militants are hiding inside so-called MILF territories.

“Definitely, we will pursue the Abu Sayyaf wherever they are in Basilan,” Allaga said.

Lt. Gen. Eugenio Cedo, a regional army chief, said more troops will be sent to Basilan to pursue the attackers and search for Bossi. One battalion of soldiers from the island of Jolo is on its way to Basilan, he said.

Military reports said soldiers have wounded a senior Abu Sayyaf leader, Isnilon Hapilon and his son and killed at least 30 MILF gunmen. The MILF said only four rebels were killed and seven others injured in the fighting.

Isnilon is on the terror lists of the Philippines and United States and was implicated in the kidnappings of U.S. citizens and foreigners in the restive South.

Alivio said the search for Bossi is ongoing in Basilan. “We have persistent reports that Bossi is being held in Al-Barka town and the MILF is preventing us from searching the priest,” he said.

Last week, three undated photographs of Bossi in captivity were sent through cell phone to his friend Spanish priest Angel Calvo in Zamboanga City. The military said a former Basilan town mayor was the source of the photos. It was unclear how the former official was able to get the photos. (Mindanao Examiner)

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 10 Jul) – A human rights group on Tuesday praised the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) after it called for a review of the Human Security Act (HSA) of 2007, or the anti-terrorism law, citing apprehension among lawyers and other sectors.

The militant group and the CBCP even condemned the soon-to-be-implemented Act as “even worse than PP1017, CPR and EO464.” “We welcome the timely objection of the CBCP to the HSA implementation on July 15,” said Karapatan regional head Beberly Musni.

The CBCP expressed concern over the “morality dimension” of the law which is set for implementation on July 15. Earlier, the militants urged the CBCP to issue statements condemning the implementation of the said Anti-Terror law.

“We hope the other faiths and sectors will follow suit,” said Musni adding people should expressed on the widest and strongest condemnation to the HSA.

Musni said, like the opposition of the multi-sectors on Charter Change will compel the GMA regime to abandon the HSA.

“This is like impact on the peoples’ freedom of expression and peaceful assembly and in right to liberty and privacy,” she said. Last year, the Supreme Court declared Executive Order 464 and Presidential Proclamation1017 as “unconstitutional and partly unconstitutional.”

“Our outrage over the attempted charter change should be again being expressed on the HSA,” said Musni. Musni also urged the Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro, headed by Archbishop Antonio Ledesma, to support the CBCP stand. President Gloria Arroyo said the HSA will take effect on July 15.

“The new law could be used to abuse the rights of government critics,” said Musni. Musni claimed that it is ironic that instead of making the people feel secure, the law would most likely cause chaos and insecurity.

The CBCP called for the suspension of the implementation of HSA. "Since we, as pastors, have to look more into the morality of this law and make a pronouncement in that level,” said in a CBCP’s statement however, reiterated their pursuit for peace as well as condemnation of terrorist acts.

On Monday, acting Defense Secy. Norberto Gonzales maintained that the public has no reason to fear the HAS. "If you are not planning anything illegal then the law is for the protection of human rights and not for its (human rights) violation," he said.

Arroyo was in Cagayan de Oro City on Monday where she spoke at the Mindanao Peace and Security Summit.

Cagayan de Oro Mayor Constantino Jaraula said the country needs the new law to address the threat of terrorism.

Gonzales said the government is seriously considering tagging the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People’s Army as terrorist organizations. The United States and European Union also listed the CPP and NPA as foreign terrorist organizations on Manila’s prodding.

Arroyo initiated the summit through the National Security Council (NSC) and was attended by multi-sector groups in Mindanao, local government officials, the Philippine National Police (PNP), the Armed Forces of Philippines (AFP), ulamas, priests and even representatives of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), members of the academe and the President’s Cabinet who hold positions in the security cluster committee.

Arroyo has defined the government's target in the next three years, which is for the AFP to give strategic defeat to insurgency and other rebel groups, modernize the military, advance the protection of human rights, a sustainable peace in Mindanao and expand alliances for regional and global security.

She also signed Executive Order 546, stating the important role of local officials in preparing internal security plans in their localities and the making of PNP as co-equal partner in the effort of combating insurgencies and terrorism in the country.

Peace initiatives and development are also starting to pour in with the optimism of foreign donors supportive of the government peace initiatives in Mindanao. (With a report from Ben Balce)

ZAMBOANGA SIBUGAY (Mindanao Examiner / 09 Jul) – Philippine authorities have failed to locate a kidnapped Italian Roman Catholic priest held by Muslim rebels in the restive southern region.

Rouge members of the country’s largest Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), seized Fr Giancarlo Bossi, 57, on June 10 in the coastal town of Payao in Zamboanga Sibugay province.

The Milan-born priest belongs to the Rome-based Pontificio Instituto Missioni Estere (PIME).
“We have no developments yet. Our troops are searching for Father Bossi,” Major General Nehemias Pajarito, commander of the Army’s 1st Infantry Division, told the Mindanao Examiner on Monday.

Last week, three photos of Fr Bossi were sent through cell phone to his friend, Spanish priest Angel Calvo, in Zamboanga City. Military sources said a former town mayor was the source of the photos. It was unknown how the former politician was able to get the photos.

Philippine authorities were investigating the authenticity of the photos, all showing Fr Bossi sitting on a boulder surrounded by trees. One photograph showed Fr Bossi holding a transistor radio.

“The emergence of photographs of the kidnapped priest two days ago, has raised hopes, but now there are speculations and requests coming from strange people, who we prefer to keep at bay. The interest of the media can also be dangerous if it is not well managed: we are interested in Fr Bossi as a person, not as an object of curiosity.”

“This is just why prayers for his release are being organized continuously: the community of PIME in the Philippines has invited the nation’s faithful – as it has done every day so far – to pray incessantly for the liberation of Fr Bossi and for his deliverance from those who kidnapped him,” PIME said.

The Peace Advocate Zamboanga, headed by Fr Calvo, said they would hold a mass in Zamboanga City on Tuesday, which will coincide with the international day of prayer called by PIME, exactly one month after the kidnapping of Fr Bossi.

The MILF, which is monitoring the situation, previously said the kidnappers of the priest were demanding “tens of millions of pesos” in ransom.

Acting Filipino Defense chief Norberto Gonzales told an Italian special envoy Margherita Boniver that Abu Sayyaf militants with links to al-Qaeda terror network are holding the priest. Boniver was in the Philippines last week to look into the progress of the search for Fr Bossi.

But military and police maintained that the Milan-born priest is being held by rogue MILF rebels and not the Abu Sayyaf. The province is a known lair of the MILF.

The priest was even reported to be in Basilan island. “There are reported sightings, reported landings that Bossi is in the area, but we have no positive identification, no positive engagement,” the island’s military chief, Marine Colonel Ramiro Alivio.

He said the photos of Fr Bossi will help military authorities in the search for the hostage.

“I consider the picture of Bossi as a source of information. We are evaluating the background, the foliage, [his] disposition, the expression on his face,” he said in a separate interview.
Bossi is the third Italian priest kidnapped the past 9 years in southern Philippines.

Rogue MILF rebels kidnapped Father Luciano Benedetti, 52, in Zamboanga del Norte province in 1998 and held for nearly 10 weeks until he was freed in exchange for a huge government ransom.

In 2001, renegade MILF rebels and members of the bandit group called Pentagon Gang also snatched Father Giuseppe Pierantoni as the 44-year-old from Bologna said mass in the parish church of Dimataling town in Zamboanga del Sur.

The priest was freed after six months in captivity in exchange for an unspecified ransom, but he claimed to have escaped from his kidnappers. (Juley Reyes and Juan Magtanggol)

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 09 Jul) – Security is tight Monday in Cagayan de Oro City where President Gloria Arroyo is to speak on an anti-terrorism summit.

Arroyo would also meet with her Cabinet security cluster in the first leg of public consultations on the Human Security Act (HSA) which is set to take effect on July 15.

Senior Supt. Aurelio Trampe Jr., chief of the local police force, said he placed the entire city on heightened security alert because of the summit at the Pryce Plaza here. “Additional personnel will be deployed in crowded places in the entire city,” said Trampe. “We provided 2nd and 3rd layer security to President Arroyo today.”

The summit is expected to draw leaders and experts in the security field from the government, business, religious and the academe, according to Trampe. But militant groups and political activists have threatened to stage mass actions to protest the anti-terrorism law.

They said the HAS would be used by the government to silence progressive groups and politicians opposed to Arroyo’s rule. Beverly Musni, head of the human rights group, Karapatan, said militants and activists would immediately be arrested once the HSA took effect.

But Norberto Gonzales, National Security Adviser and acting Defense chief, said the HSA had enough safeguards to prevent its abuse.

“There is nothing to fear really. The law is there to protect the public, not to harm them,” he said, adding people must commit a terrorist act before they can be arrested.

Gonzales, who is also the Partido Demokratiko Sosyalista ng Pilipinas (PDSP) consultant, also said the anti-terror law is all set for implementation but admitted that its organizational structure is still being finalized.

“We’ve already complied with most of the requirements but I’m not sure how complete our organization is because we have to identify members of the office that would implement it,” he said.

Trampe said they expect militant groups to hold protest actions but this would not hinder the consultation. “We are prepared with our civil disturbance management team in case there will be street rallies,” Trampe said.

City Mayor Constantino Jaraula said Arroyo would arrive later in the day.

According to a government handout, the summit aims to identify problems and difficulties faced in fighting terrorists from the perspectives of the stakeholders and to agree on an action agenda to strengthen local mechanisms for counter-terrorism. (Ben Balce)

QUEZON CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 02 Jul) – Aminado ngayon ang kaluluklok na Officer-in-Charge ng Department of National Defense (DND) na si National Security Council (NSC) Adviser Norberto Gonzales na tagumpay o nakalalamang ang mga kalaban ng Estado sa mapanirang propaganda.

Isinagawa kanina ang turn-over ceremony sa Tanggulang Pambansa na pansamantalang pangangasiwaan ni Gonzales sa loob ng isang buwan bago maupo si Tarlac Rep. Gilbert Teodoro Jr. sa Agosto 3.

Ang dating kalihim na si Hermogenes Ebdane Jr., ay ibinalik sa Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) matapos ang limang buwang panunungkulan sa DND. Sa kanyang talumpati, sinabi ni Gonzales na tuluyang nadidiin ang Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) sa usapin ng extrajudicial killings dahil sa kampanya ng mga kalaban tulad ng Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army (CPP-NPA).

"Enemies are successful in showing that we are wrong. This cannot be allowed to happen. The communists is using the killings as propaganda, unnecessarily blaming the government," ani Gonzales.

Sa isang buwang magiging pag-upo ni Gonzales ay tiniyak nito sa mga miyembro ng AFP na hindi na magagamit ng mga rebelde at terorista ang black propaganda upang linlangin o papaniwalain ang taumbayan.

Pinayuhan rin ng kalihim ang militar na isakatuparan ang trabaho nang matahimik.Nais ni Gonzales na maipursige ang mga pagsisiyasat sa pagkakadawit ng militar sa political killings at bigyan ng pagkakataon ang mga kaanak ng biktima na makapagsalita para sa panig nito. (Juley Reyes)

COTABATO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 19 Jun) – Two senior Arroyo government advsiers were said to be behind the resignation of the country’s chief peace negotiator with Muslim rebels in the restive southern Mindanao region.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) tagged Presidential peace adviser Jesus Dureza and National Security adviser Norberto Gonzales as behind the replacement of Silvestre Afable as head of the government peace panel.

A Catholic priest, Eliseo Mercado, is named new government peace negotiator.

“We have unimpeachable sources from the Palace that told us the two – Dureza and Gonzales – are behind Afable’s sudden resignation,” the head of the MILF peace panel, Mohagher Iqbal, told the regional newspaper, the Mindanao Examiner.

Iqbal said the two officials, with the participation of an unidentified, but influential religious group, hatched the plan to remove Afable last week for still unknown reasons.

“Afable’s resignation is a set back to the peace process. Afable has done so much for the peace process,” he said.

He called Dureza and Gonzales as “gigolo and spoilers of the peace process.”

Dureza was a former lead government negotiator with the MILF, but had resigned after rebel leaders accused him of secretly inserting a provision on a previously signed agreement.

The two officials were not immediately available to comment on the allegations.

The MILF is the country’s largest Muslim rebel group fighting for a separate homeland in the troubled, but mineral-rich region of Mindanao. (Mindanao Examiner)