Malacañang has informed heads of foreign embassies in Manila that it has to shelve its plan to sign the controversial memorandum of agreement  on ancestral domain with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) following “barbaric attacks” launched by the Islamic secessionists in parts of Mindanao.

                In a briefing for the diplomatic corps, Press Secretary Jesus Dureza said the government is not poised to sign the agreement with the MILF with the worsening situation in Mindanao due to fresh attacks of Islamic rebels that caused deaths and displacements of thousands of families.

                “In the light of what is happening today in Mindanao, it is best that we continue negotiating on that particular agreement and that we further negotiate until we come up with the final settlement,” he said in the briefing at the Summit Lounge of the Department of Foreign Affairs late Wednesday.

                “The government will not sign that agreement in its present form,” said Dureza, who is also the former presidential adviser on the peace process.

                At the same time, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) maintained that offensive attacks against the MILF rebels would still take place in the next few days, citing it is pursuing the perpetrators of the attacks in Lanao del Norte and North Cotabato AFP chief of staff Alexander Yano said the government is running after MILF leaders who are responsible for the new attacks in the villages in those two affected provinces in Mindanao.

                ”We’re running after the group and we will see to it that we will pursue them to answer what they’ve done,” Yano, who was also at the briefing, said.

                Asked how the military would venture into MILF lairs, Yano said: “We have mechanisms to do that. There’s no such thing as any territory that we cannot enter.”

                Dureza, meanwhile, explained that the decision to suspend the signing of the agreement on ancestral domain is being undertaken despite the outcome of the Supreme Court case filed by lawmakers.

                ”If the SC will dismiss the case based on our initial position that there is no case at all and, therefore, the TRO [temporary restraining order] will be removed, it will not mean that the government will proceed now without the restraining order. The government will not sign that particular agreement,” Dureza stressed. However, he said the government is not abandoning its peace efforts in Mindanao.

                “We will further negotiate because there is no alternative to peace except war. So we have just to continue working for peace in Mindanao,” he explained. --E. Torres

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Malacañang has informed heads of foreign embassies in Manila that it has to shelve its plan to sign the controversial memorandum of agreement  on ancestral domain with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) following “barbaric attacks” launched by the Islamic secessionists in parts of Mindanao.