MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine government said Friday that it will resume formal peace talks with the country's main Muslim rebel group next month, but it was unclear how the two sides resolved a dispute over the negotiations' Malaysian facilitator.
The government wants to replace Othman Abdul Razak, an official in the Malaysian prime minister's office who has mediated for the last seven years in the efforts to grant minority Muslims in the southern Philippines broad autonomy in exchange for ending a decades-long bloody insurgency. The rebel Moro Islamic Liberation Front wants to retain him.
Philippine negotiator Marvic Leonen said after a meeting in Malaysia's main city, Kuala Lumpur, late Thursday that he was satisfied with the resolution of the issue of the facilitator and was optimistic that talks set for Feb. 9-10 will move forward.
"The government of the Philippines ... welcomes the solution of the Malaysian government on the concerns raised regarding facilitation," Leonen said in a statement, without providing details.
Philippine officials have previously indicated they consider Othman to be biased in favor of the rebels, and there were reports last year in the local press that he had leaked documents to the rebels containing the government's negotiating position. Othman has defended his record in the talks but said in November that his fate lies in the hands of his government.
"If the Malaysian government decided to change him, that is the business of the Malaysian government. We cannot do anything," rebel spokesman Eid Kabalu told The Associated Press on Friday.
The Philippine government had requested Muslim-majority Malaysia to facilitate in the talks because it wields some influence over Moro rebels and has expressed interest in peace and stability in the southern Philippines. During violence in the 1970s and 1980s, tens of thousands of Filipino refugees fled to nearby Malaysia.
Formal talks collapsed in 2008 after the Supreme Court rejected a preliminary accord with the government of then-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo that would have expanded an existing Muslim autonomous region in the southern Philippines.
Christian politicians in the south had assailed the deal as partition of the Philippines and sent it back to the drawing board. The rebels responded with a series of attacks and village raids that left hundreds dead and thousands displaced before a cease-fire took effect.
After President Benigno Aquino III took office in June, both sides formed new peace panels and sought to resume talks.
Chief rebel negotiator Mohagher Iqbal said in September that his 11,000-strong group was no longer demanding independence from the Philippines but status similar to a U.S. state.
The United States, which has hundreds of troops training Filipino soldiers in the south, also called for a resumption of the talks, hoping the peace process would help turn the region into an economic growth area instead of a sanctuary for al-Qaida-linked militants.
