Committed to PEOPLE'S RIGHT TO KNOW
Vol. 5 Num 1082 Sun. June 17, 2007  
   
International


Chief Filipino peace negotiator resigns


The head of a Philippines government panel negotiating with Muslim separatist rebels has resigned in a further blow to stalled peace talks, the presidential spokesman announced here yesterday.

Silvestre Afable "has resigned and discussed the matter with President Gloria Arroyo," said Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye.

"There is now a search for his replacement. In the meantime, he will stay on as adviser to the peace talks," a position he will hold even after his replacement is named, Bunye said.

The Philippines government has been in negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and talks were supposed to resume at the end of the May 14 midterm elections.

The 12,000-strong MILF late last year said the talks were on the brink of collapse over its demands for economic control of ancestral lands in the southern island of Mindanao.