ZAMBOANGA CITY: The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) blamed Manila for the collapse of the peace talks after government negotiators reneged again on a deal that would grant Filipino Muslims a separate homeland in the strife-torn, but mineral-rich region of Mindanao.
The talks collapsed Friday in Malaysia after government peace negotiators attempted to make changes on an earlier deal on ancestral domain.
Sources from the government and the MILF said yesterday that Manila's negotiators tried on Friday to delay the referendum on enlarging a previous Muslim homeland until after a political agreement was reached.
The previous commitment was to hold the vote six months after a deal on territory was signed, originally scheduled for Aug. 5.
Both sides had hoped to wrap up the talks on an ancestral homeland this week in Kuala Lumpur ahead of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's annual state of the nation address tomorrow.
"The talks collapsed because the government was undoing already-settled issues on ancestral domain," Mohagher Iqbal, chief MILF peace negotiator, said.
Real progress appeared to have been made when Arroyo this week supported postponing Aug. 11 elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao because progress in talks with the 11,000-member MILF made a new political setup a possibility.
Rodolfo Garcia, a retired army general and Manila's chief negotiator, said yesterday the negotiations remained open, describing it as an "impasse not a total collapse."
"We can still save it," he said.
The two sides have been talking, on and off, since 1997.
