MANILA: Philippine President Benigno Aquino held a surprise meeting in Japan with the country’s top Muslim rebel to address growing concerns over delays in implementing a peace deal, their aides said yesterday.
The meeting took place on Tuesday on the sidelines of a peace conference in Hiroshima where Aquino and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (Milf) Chairman Murad Ebrahim were guests, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said. A rebel spokesman said the MILF sought the meeting to raise concerns over delays in implementing an accord signed in March, after a draft law that is crucial for a final peace was not passed by Congress this month as planned.
Lacierda divulged few details of the meeting, other than it was a 15-minute encounter and that they talked about the planned law that would create an autonomous Muslim region in the southern Philippines. “It is safe to assume that the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law was discussed,” Lacierda said. Muslim rebels have been battling for independence or autonomy in the southern islands of the mainly Catholic Philippines since the 1970s, with the conflict claiming tens of thousands of lives.
The MILF, with 10,000 armed followers, is the biggest rebel group and its signing of the accord has raised hopes of peace.
AFP
