President Duterte on Friday admitted that he is becoming pessimistic on the peace talks between the government and the Moro National Liberation Front and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
“I am talking to the MILF pati MNLF but apparently you’d notice nag-aagawan sila ng kampo nga-yon,” Duterte said in a police camp in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Friday.
“So I’m at a loss even. I was very optimistic before but I’m a bit pessimistic now,” he said.
Duterte revealed that MNLF chairman Nur Misuari is keeping his silence about his concerns with the rival group but still talks to Duterte about them.
“But ‘yung misgivings niya dito sa ibang grupo, it used to be MNLF tapos the sprouting up of the MILF, BIFF, lahat-lahat na. It used to be a convoluted thing,” he said. “Kaya pati ako, I’m a little bit worried that nothing will come out of this.”
The MNLF and the MILF became rival Islamist separatist groups after a group of MNLF members critical of Misuari’s leadership broke away and formed the MILF in the late 1970s.
Duterte’s administration has renewed the peace talks in Mindanao with the promise of engaging both groups. The government is creating two separate panels to engage the rival groups.
The President revealed that the peace talks in Mindanao are set to commence following the visit of Misuari during his birth anniversary week last March.
Misuari and his family had a closed-door meeting with Duterte the night before his birth anniversary.
The meeting was also held after the President met foreign officials in Davao City.
Duterte previously revealed that he has been discussing with Misuari a preparatory document about a proposed federal system for the benefit of Mindanao.
“We are talking, we are crafting a sort of a preparatory document so that we can go into the process of proposing the federal structure,” Duterte said. (Argyll Cyrus B. Geducos)