The Philippine government signed a formal ceasefire pact Tuesday with its main Muslim guerrilla adversaries, raising hopes of peace and development finally coming to the desperately poor south.
The pact between Manila and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), sealed after days of intense talks, expanded the scope of a preliminary accord reached in Libya in June and officials said there was still a long way to a final peace agreement.
The signing ceremony was witnessed by Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar at the Putrajaya government administrative center, where visiting Philippines President Gloria Arroyo and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad were holding talks.
The MILF also signed a unity pact with a smaller Muslim separatist group, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), to forge peace in the impoverished southern Philippines.
The pacts do not cover the Abu Sayyaf -- the only Muslim militant group still fighting in the southern Philippines -- which is holding 21 US and Filipino hostages on southern Basilan island where the MILF also operates.
"This is good news for everybody. If we are able to silence the gun and move into development, it is a dream of every Mindanao," said Manila chief negotiator Jesus Dureza, referring to the main island in southern Philippines racked by separatist violence since the early 1970s.
"This ceasefire is immediate but we have to do a lot of work on the ground."
After the signing, Dureza and MILF officials met briefly with Mahathir and Arroyo. He said Arroyo congratulated them and called for development in Mindanao.
A joint communique said the pact outlined guidelines to normalise the situation in Mindanao to pave the way for rehabilitation and development programs.
The next round of talks will be held next month at a venue to be decided later to discuss remaining issues on rehabilitation, development and ancestral lands, it said.
"The guidelines not only silence the guns for the peace of mind of the people. These also prohibit all public pronouncements that will tend to undermine the sincerity of both parties in waging peace," it said.
"Towards this end, the war of bullets and of words shall cease and the parties shall follow the road to peace through earnest and principled negotiations. This will accord the Bangsamoro people permanent space for peace, self-reliance and development."
A team made up of non-governmental organisations, local governments and religious officials would monitor the ceasefire.
The treaty brokered in Kuala Lumpur would also involve monitoring teams from Malaysia, Indonesia and Libya representing the 56-member Organisation of Islamic Conference.
Both MILF chief negotiator Murad Ebrahim and Dureza have said more negotiations were required before a final peace agreement could be reached.
Syed Hamid said Tuesday's pact marked "another step forward for the quest for peace" in Mindanao.
"I hope that both sides take this opportunity and momentum to continue working vigorously on other aspects of the peace process relating to the economic development," he said.
Syed Hamid later told reporters that both Mahathir and Arroyo welcomed the pacts. Mahathir also told both the MILF and MNLF not to make demands for an independent state, he added.
The 12,500-strong MILF resulted from a 1978 splinter of the MNLF, which signed a peace treaty with the government in 1995 to end more than two decades of separatist rebellion.
The MILF and MNLF reached agreement to unite last Friday after talks in Kuala Lumpur.
On August 14, a plebiscite is due to be held in the southern Mindanao region to ask the electorate if they want to join a Muslim autonomous region headed by MNLF founder and chairman Nur Misuari -- PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia (AFP)
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