September 5, 2012 News: The 31st GPH-MILF Exploratory Talks will commence today and will end on the 8th of this month,  after it was postponed to give way to the state funeral for the departed Secretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Jesse Robredo, who died in plane crash in the waters off Masbate last August 18.

The MILF has offered official condolence to the family, relatives, and the Aquino administration over the death of Secretary Robredo. Mohagher Iqbal, head of the MILF peace panel, made the statement in behalf of the MILF Central Committee.

The talks was originally scheduled on August 27-30, but barely few hours before members of the MILF will start to depart for Manila various points in Mindanao, the news of the postponement was announced.

The request for postponement was made by the government peace panel, which the MILF peace panel agreed without much ado, saying the state funeral for Robredo takes precedence over the meeting in Kuala Lumpur, which can be reset.

This meeting of the two peace panels in Kuala Lumpur is expected to be very tough given the fact that power-sharing, wealth-sharing, geographical areas, normalization, and constitutional issues are part of the agenda.

As usual, the government peace panel is being led by former Law Dean Marvic Leonen, while the MILF’s by Mohagher Iqbal. Also joining the two peace delegations are their respective secretariats, consultants or advisers and members of their technical working groups (TWGs).

For the first time, two women are part of the MILF peace team, and in addition two members of the indigenous people in Mindanao also accompanied the delegation.

Asked to assess the chances of a major breakthrough in the talks, Jun Mantawil, head of the MILF peace panel secretariat since the 90s, merely commented, “In negotiation, nothing is certain”.

He added, however, that the negotiation is moving forward inch by inch and definitely the destination is ahead.

“How far or near, I don’t know,” he remarked.