President Gloria Arroyo said yesterday the Philippine government would agree to lift arrest warrants against Muslim separatist rebels to jump-start stalled peace talks.
Arroyo said her government was working to "build confidence in the peace process and we are preparing for the opening of talks" with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the country's main Muslim separatist group.
"We are open to the suspension of warrants by the court if this is necessary [to] move the peace talks forward," the president said.
MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu welcomed Arroyo's statement and said rebel negotiators were now prepared to resume talks in Malaysia.
"That's a positive development. We welcome that development," Kabalu said, stressing that both sides were now "on the stage of compliance for resumption of peace talks."
"If this will continue I think we will have a good start for the resumption of the talks," he said.
The MILF had earlier warned that the Muslim rebels would not return to the negotiating table unless the arrest warrants against its chief, Salamat Has-him, and other rebel negotiators are lifted.
The warrants were slapped against them in connection with deadly bombings in the southern Philippines this year.
"The MILF must not tarry on the procedural issues involved, especially so that it has several lawyers and legal advisers among its ranks," Arroyo said. "We must avoid being bogged down by these matters."
Malaysia, which has hosted preliminary peace talks, has said it would be difficult to go ahead with formal negotiations with the arrest warrants still in effect. Under the Philippines legal system only the courts can lift the warrants.
The 12,500-strong MILF has been waging a 25-year rebellion for the establishment of an independent Islamic state in the southern third of this mostly Roman Catholic country.
Peace talks were suspended early this year when Arroyo accused the MILF of harboring Muslim terrorists responsible for a spate of attacks in the south, including the bombings of an airport and a wharf in the southern city of Davao that left 38 dead.
An MILF commander earlier Monday accused Manila of insincerity and warned of more hostilities in the south if the negotiations fell through.
A statement posted on the MILF Web site quoted senior rebel leader Gordon Saifullah as saying the rebels were prepared to return to war immediately if efforts to resume talks collapsed.
The MILF earlier denounced links to the Southeast Asian Muslim terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah and said Salamat was willing to personally sit at the negotiating table, fulfilling two conditions set by Arroyo for the talks to be revived.
REVENGE: Trump said he had the support of the Syrian government for the strikes, which took place in response to an Islamic State attack on US soldiers last week The US launched large-scale airstrikes on more than 70 targets across Syria, the Pentagon said on Friday, fulfilling US President Donald Trump’s vow to strike back after the killing of two US soldiers. “This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance,” US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wrote on social media. “Today, we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them. And we will continue.” The US Central Command said that fighter jets, attack helicopters and artillery targeted ISIS infrastructure and weapon sites. “All terrorists who are evil enough to attack Americans are hereby warned
Seven wild Asiatic elephants were killed and a calf was injured when a high-speed passenger train collided with a herd crossing the tracks in India’s northeastern state of Assam early yesterday, local authorities said. The train driver spotted the herd of about 100 elephants and used the emergency brakes, but the train still hit some of the animals, Indian Railways spokesman Kapinjal Kishore Sharma told reporters. Five train coaches and the engine derailed following the impact, but there were no human casualties, Sharma said. Veterinarians carried out autopsies on the dead elephants, which were to be buried later in the day. The accident site
‘POLITICAL LOYALTY’: The move breaks with decades of precedent among US administrations, which have tended to leave career ambassadors in their posts US President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered dozens of US ambassadors to step down, people familiar with the matter said, a precedent-breaking recall that would leave embassies abroad without US Senate-confirmed leadership. The envoys, career diplomats who were almost all named to their jobs under former US president Joe Biden, were told over the phone in the past few days they needed to depart in the next few weeks, the people said. They would not be fired, but finding new roles would be a challenge given that many are far along in their careers and opportunities for senior diplomats can
RUSHED: The US pushed for the October deal to be ready for a ceremony with Trump, but sometimes it takes time to create an agreement that can hold, a Thai official said Defense officials from Thailand and Cambodia are to meet tomorrow to discuss the possibility of resuming a ceasefire between the two countries, Thailand’s top diplomat said yesterday, as border fighting entered a third week. A ceasefire agreement in October was rushed to ensure it could be witnessed by US President Donald Trump and lacked sufficient details to ensure the deal to end the armed conflict would hold, Thai Minister of Foreign Affairs Sihasak Phuangketkeow said after an ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting in Kuala Lumpur. The two countries agreed to hold talks using their General Border Committee, an established bilateral mechanism, with Thailand
RSS