(Updated 10:00 p.m.) Government peace negotiators revealed Wednesday that talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are in the final stretch and that the Aquino administration “is ready to sign a peace agreement with the MILF within the year.”
 
“We are now in the last stretch of the negotiations, on the substantive agenda and though difficult, government is committed to resolve differences, and with the MILF, find win-win solutions,” presidential peace adviser Teresita Deles said.
 
Deles said the GPH-MILF peace talks already had an agreement about ARMM’s replacement.
 
“Both parties have already agreed to the creation of a new autonomous political entity (NPE) that will replace the ARMM,” she said. “(The NPE) is expected to provide for genuine autonomy for the Bangsamoro, addressing the root causes of the armed conflict in Mindanao."
 
Deles and the negotiators briefed President Benigno Aquino III on the progress of the talks a few days after attending the MILF’s Bangsamoro General Assembly last Saturday.
 
However, the details of the meeting and the question of whether the GPH-MILF talks were discussed, are yet to be known as of this posting.
 
Power- and wealth-sharing
 
Agreement on the NPE was one of six points the government and MILF panels signed off on April 24:

Impatient over ‘endless talks’
 
Deles admitted that the MILF was getting impatient over "endless talks" with the government. Coordination with Congress and legal experts on how to implement the NPE and the other five points of agreement is taking some time.
 
When she attended the first day of the Bangsamoro assembly last Saturday, Deles updated the MILF on the progress of the peace panel’s coordination with senators and congressmen.
 
“Mahigpit rin ang ugnayan ng Panel at OPAPP sa Kongreso, both with the House of Representatives and with the Senate – and I tell you the feedback has been positive from the leadership of both Houses of Congress,” the presidential peace adviser said.
 
Deles disclosed at the Bangsamoro assembly that the Aquino administration is already at the stage of preparing for any legal challenge that those opposed to peace with the MILF may bring before the courts.
 
“Mag-uumpisa na rin ang aming pag-uusap sa mga retiradong justices ng Korte Suprema at pati na ang ilang mga naging miyembro ng 1987 Constitutional Commission. Ito ay para maging lubos na handa para sa kung ano mang hamon na isampa ng kung sino man laban sa peace agreement sa Supreme Court,” she said.
 
Deles explained that they are heeding the directives of President Aquino on consultations with stakeholders and being transparent with them to the fullest extent possible.
 
A new 'sub-state'
 
On Tuesday, MILF chairman Al Haj Murad pushed anew the Moro group's calls for a sub-state that will give the Bangsamoro people genuine self-governance. He said negotiations with the government, now at a critical stage, must be finished.
 
Murad reiterated the MILF’s call for a separate sub-state at the end of the four-day Bangsamoro Leaders’ Assembly, according to an article posted on the MILF website Tuesday.
 
“We are not campaigning for [a] federal form of government but a sub-state,” he said. “We do not recognize the ARMM [Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao] as it has no power, much more no peoples’ empowerment.”
 
'At its bottom line'
 
“(The negotiation) is now at its bottom line that another compromise is of no avail anymore," Murad said.
 
On the assembly’s final day, Murad noted that the MILF has offered many compromises already, but said the government offered "no substantive compromise."
 
He said the negotiations had years without having the problems addressed, but noted that "everything has an ending." He also warned of the consequences should the MILF grow weary with the government negotiations.
 
"If political struggle is exhausted, (armed) struggle may have been the other way," he said.
 
But peace with the MILF is holding as there have been no military skirmishes with the MILF since January. — RSJ/ELR/VS, GMA News