Manila, NU Online
Following secret talks with Philippine President Benigno Aquino earlier this month, the country's largest Muslim group sees a peace deal to establish their independent state in the south is within reach.

"It depends on his political will," Mohagher Iqbal, Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)'s chief peace negotiator, told Reuters in an interview, referring to Aquino.

"He (Aquino) has enough political capital and I think it can be done."

Aquino held talks with MILF leader Murad Ebrahim in the Japanese capital for two hours last week.

The meeting came a week ahead of a new round of peace negotiations between Manila and the MILF in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, on August 15.

Aquino, the son of democracy heroine Cory Aquino, won the presidency in 2010 on a campaign to root out corruption and speed up economic reforms.

He is also pursuing separately a peace pact with Maoist rebels in the Philippines, hoping to forge deals within the first half of his single six-year term ending in June 2016.

Iqbal believes that a peace deal can be reached between Manila and MILF within two years to solve the decades-long conflict in the south.

The MILF, the country's biggest Muslim group, has been struggling for an independent state in the mineral-rich southern region of Mindanao for some three decades now.

More than 120,000 people have been killed since the conflict erupted in the late 1960s.

"There is no reason why the government cannot grant that because we are not seceding from the government," Iqbal said.

Manila and the MILF signed in 1996 a peace agreement, which was floundered due to a lack of funds, poor implementation and opposition from hardliners on both sides.

Mindanao, the birthplace of Islam in the Philippines, is home to more than 5 million Muslims.

Sub-state

The MILF has also sought to allay fears about having an independent state in the south.

"There is nothing to fear in this proposal, because the sub-state, as the name connotes, is still part of the Philippines," MILF said in an editorial on its website, according to Manila Standard Today.

"It has no army, except police and internal security forces, tasked to do policing within the sub-state."

The MILF said that the sub-state would be similar to states in a federation.

"In a federation, the self-governing status of the component states is typically constitutionally entrenched and may not be altered by a unilateral decision of the central government."

"The MILF's formula calls for the creation of a sub-state for the Moros. This entity is not an independent state. The powers over national defense, foreign relations, coinage and currency, and postal services are still the sole jurisdiction of the central government. The sub-state has jurisdiction only over other matters, except those jointly exercised by the sub-state and the central government."

The Muslim group called on the Philippine government and people to let the Moros run their affairs. "Let them decide their own destiny. Let them succeed or self-destruct. Gone were the days when the government in Manila designed everything for them." (iol/dar)