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Thursday, September 28, 2006
Gov't rejects Muslim rebel demand on expanded region
MANILA -- The government on Wednesday rejected a rebel group's demand to expand a Muslim autonomous region without holding a referendum, a senior official said, raising prospects of a prolonged impasse in peace talks.
The government remains firm in its position that the region cannot be expanded unless residents in affected areas approve the move in a plebiscite, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said.
Malaysian-brokered talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the largest Muslim group fighting for self-rule in the southern Philippines, hit a snag early this month over the issue. The MILF wants the region expanded without any plebiscite.
"We will stand pat on our position that we must follow the constitutional process," Ermita told reporters a day after government negotiators and Cabinet security officials agreed on the position.
The MILF published a clarification on the ancestral domain claim on its website, www.luwaran.com, that the "Bangsamoro People anchors on their historical, legal, and ancestral rights over their homeland."
"Mindanao, Sulu, and Palawan region," the clarification said. The MILF said only the Bangsamoro People have valid claim to ancestral domain in Mindanao, being the "First Nation."
It explained that Christian settlers, being newcomers, have no valid claim on ancestral domain, they being indigenous to Luzon and the Visayas.
However, the MILF assured that all their legitimate rights to their landholding and other duly acquired properties will be respected.
MILF chairman Al Haj Murad has blamed the government for the stalled talks and warned that negotiations could collapse if the government does not take them seriously.
During talks held September 6 and 7 in Kuala Lumpur, rebel negotiators had rejected a government offer to include some areas in the southern Mindanao region on condition that they are subject to constitutional processes.
Murad said the "conditional offer" was something that "no real revolutionary group worthy of its name can accept."
Ermita, however, said Wednesday that adhering to the Constitution was "nonnegotiable."
"The bottom line is we cannot do anything unless it's within our Constitution," he said. "We have to find out how the peace process will progress."
Asked whether the government is prepared to go back to war if the talks collapse, Ermita said: "Let's put it this way: Nobody can scare the government on anything. We are the government. We have the armed force, we have the armed services, we have the police. But we will do everything to move on with our peace process." (AP)
(September 28, 2006 issue)
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