MANILA, July 20 -– The ongoing peace talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) have made progress, moving closer towards signing a peace accord even as the MILF chief negotiator said the final discussions on details are always difficult because “the devils are waiting in ambush.”

“We are aware that we are now approaching the cusp of history,” said Dean Marvic Leonen, the government’s chief negotiator, in his closing statement at the 29th exploratory talks in Kuala Lumpur last Wednesday.

“For a centuries-old conflict (since the Spanish occupation) and years of negotiations, we definitely will face the hardest questions and confront our principals with the hardest decisions yet ever to be made in these negotiations,” said Leonen who earlier stated that the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the MILF “are at the door of an agreement” to end the Mindanao conflict for good.

He said the negotiations have accomplished “something which the GPH and the MILF have never achieved before in these talks,” adding that “these agreements may be in principle, some in detail.”

However, he was quick to add that the government remains guardedly optimistic.

“For the GPH, there are still many issues to be resolved, including the mechanisms that will ensure the delivery of all these commitments made through broad acceptance by all our critical sectors,” Leonen said.

LOOKING FORWARD

Leonen said the government looks forward to the day when both sides are “able to sign the first of a series of agreements.”

“The GPH believes that we are at the door of something new, and that something new would be to sign an agreement. And then to go on to the next phase of our relationship – to actually implement and be able to achieve the just and lasting peace that our people so richly deserve,” he added.

The panel chair likewise stressed that the future of communities affected by conflict “depends a lot on the words that we craft, the goodwill that we have won, the patience that we can muster.”

“We are confident that even our working relationship that we have seen so far, that we will be true to ourselves and our principles, as well as the beliefs of our principals. That we can see a way forward,” he said.

DIFFICULT NEGOTIATION

On the part of the MILF, its chief negotiator, Mohagher Iqbal, agreed that the parties “have achieved something” and congratulated everyone for enduring three days of hard discussions.

Iqbal said that in the final stages of the negotiations, they are always difficult because “the devils are in the details.”

“We can easily agree on principles, on general framework, on general concepts. But when we discuss the details, the devils are waiting in ambush. So, it is not very difficult to understand why the last stretch of our negotiation is so difficult,” Iqbal said.

“Just wait, because the real matters are yet in the offing and I think finally it would be disclosed to everyone, to the public, to the people back in Mindanao,” he said.

The 29th exploratory talks successfully concluded last Wednesday with both sides confident in their discussions on mechanisms towards realizing the new autonomous political entity (NPE) that will replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

The NPE is one of the 10 common standpoints indicated in the Decision Points on Principles signed by the two peace panels last April.

During the latest negotiations, the two sides continued discussions on substantive issues, which include power-sharing and other related matters. They agreed to meet again in August.

Meanwhile, Malaysian facilitator Tengku Dato’ Ghafar Tengku bin Mohamed also expressed optimism that the GPH and the MILF are “closer to the vision of the Final Peace Agreement.”

“However, we feel there is a lot of work to be done” but “one thing is - we are moving very fast. I think that is important. The spirit of the whole Final Agreement is understood by both parties,” Tengku said.

NEXT ROUND IN AUGUST

The panels are set to hold their next round of formal exploratory talks next month.

“We expect the next meetings not to be less in terms of its intensity,” Leonen said, adding that the next round will be more difficult.

On the other hand, Iqbal expressed the hope that both sides “will be able to achieve many things on our way to resolve the Moro question in Mindanao.”

Talks between the government and the MILF, a breakaway group of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) that signed a peace agreement with the government during the Ramos presidency, started in 1997.

During the past 15 years, the negotiations dragged on, marked by intermittent fighting, the biggest of which flared up in the summer of 2000 and another one in 2008 following the aborted signing of the controversial Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-Ad) which was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

However, during the period back-channeling talks continued and formal exploratory negotiations resumed in December 2009 to date with the hope of finally finding a genuine and lasting solution to the Mindanao armed conflict.