Press Release
November 19, 2008

RESUME PEACE TALKS WITH MILF
WITH INDONESIA AS THE THIRD PARTY FACILITATOR

Senator Rodolfo G Biazon today through the filing of Senate Resolution No. 758 urged the Executive department to explore the possibility of pursuing the peace talks with the MILF without foreign intervention.

"If this is not tenable, then the government should consider another country to be the FACILITATOR of the peace talks instead of Malaysia,"

Biazon said, "We cannot disregard that Malaysia has a conflict of interest with the Philippines as far as the unresolved Sabah question and the conflicting claims in the Spratlys are concerned."

"Our fellow Southeast Asian country, Indonesia, has been instrumental in the government's peace efforts towards the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) that culminated in the signing of the Jakarta Accord in 1996, " the Chairman of the Senate Committee on National Defense and Security cited.

"Considering this assistance that Indonesia has extended and the fact that it has no conflict of interest with the Philippines, Indonesia should be considered as FACILITATOR once the peace process with the MILF is resumed."

"The non-signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) caused the collapse of the peace talks between the two parties."

"We continue to witness depredatory attacks launched by certain elements of the MILF against the civilian population mostly in the southern part of our country."

"The peace process with the MILF cannot and should not be abandoned as efforts of government in bringing into the folds of the law elements of the group who are responsible for depredatory attacks against the State and its people continues. "

Biazon concluded, "The alternative to peace will only be too costly to our country and our people."

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