May 18, 2012 News: The Central Committee of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) commended the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue (CHD) for its significant support and assistance to the ongoing peace negotiations between the MILF and the Government of the Philippines (GPH).

Muhammad Ameen, Chief Secretariat of the MILF Central Committee, cited the technical expertise and assistance of the CHD as significant factor that help the government and MILF Peace Negotiating Panels and the Malaysian Third Party Facilitator in dealing with wide range of issues and agenda.

Ameen expressed this during the dialogue between the David Gorman, Mediation Advisor of CHD for the Philippines, and the MILF Central Committee at Camp Darapanan, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao last May 16, 2012.

Mohagher Iqbal, Chief of the MILF Peace Negotiating Panel and Central Committee on Information, led the MILF in the dialogue. Members of the MILF Peace Panel and Secretariat were also present.

David Gorman was joined by sir George R.M. Anderson, an expert with the 2012 Stand-by-Team of the Mediation Support Unit of the United Nations and eminent personality in various fields and authors of several books, acted as resource person in the separate dialogue occasions with the MILF and Government Peace Negotiating Panel.

CHD is a member of the International Contact Group (ICG) of the GPH – MILF Peace Negotiations being facilitated by the Malaysian Government.

Aside from CHD, ICG is also composed of Japan, United Kingdom, Turkey, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, The Asia Foundation (TAF), Conciliation Resources, and Muhammadiyyah of Indonesia with the mandate of providing technical assistance and proper leverage for the government and MILF peajce talks.

Anderson thanked the MILF for the warm reception, very interactive and cordial meeting. Before him, CHD had invited several eminent international personalities on peace process that engaged the MILF, government authorities, and the civil society groups in dialogue on fleshing out means to surmount difficulties and challenges in the peace process and negotiations.

“The timing of the meeting could not have been better in drawing positive inputs for the next round of negotiations and building upon the breakthrough of the last negotiations in Malaysia,” Gorman said.

The 10 Decision Points of Principles signed by the government and MILF Peace Panel and the Malaysian Facilitator during the exploratory talks in Kuala Lumpur last April 24, 2102 was a breakthrough which was positively welcome by all involved and concerned parties, local and international.

For his part, Iqbal said the dialogue was very productive and the opinions of Mr. Anderson were invaluable for both the government and MILF peace panels.

The next round of talks is scheduled in the last week of this month with agenda focused on power-sharing and wealth-sharing.