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KUALA LUMPUR (MindaNews/11 April) – The peace panels of the Philippine government (GPH) and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) ended their three-day negotiations today (Thursday) with the three annexes to the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro still pending completion.
Today’s session began at 9:54 a.m. and ended with the signing at 1:05 p.m. of a Joint Statement that they will “meet again after the May 13 Philippine elections” to finish the annexes on wealth-sharing, power-sharing and normalization. The annexes are needed to complete the comprehensive peace agreement.
The Technical Working Group (TWG) on Normalization which has been meeting since Monday, a day ahead of the scheduled April 9 to 11 talks, continued discussions, “moving the parties towards an agreement on the architecture for the normalization process,” it said.
The eight-paragraph statement said the panels “continued to find ways to resolve remaining issues on the annexes on wealth-sharing, power-sharing and normalization, agreeing to exchange notes through the facilitator in the coming days.”
“They affirmed their commitment to finally settle thee issues soon so that all three annexes may be signed without undue delay,” the Joint Statement read.
The panels signed the Terms of Reference of the Sajahatra Bangsamoro, a socio-economic peace initiative of government in partnership with the MILF and personally launched by President Benigno Simeon Aquino III on February 11 at the Bangsamoro Leadership and Management Institute compound in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao. (Carolyn O. Arguillas/MindaNews
(To be updated)
