Philippine negotiators hoping to end rebellion have proposed creating monuments to abuses committed on both sides. The monuments should help tell the full story of the decades-long rebellion in the country's south and remind future generations of the brutality and blunders that helped perpetuate the violence, chief government negotiator Marvic Leonen said. “We have seen that future generations would not move on and heal unless we really tell the story,” Leonen said. Rebel negotiator Mohagher Iqbal said the proposal was acceptable, but that the government should first focus on resolving the rebellion, which has caused massive deaths and displacement of villagers, while stunting economic growth in the resource-rich region. The Philippine government and the 11,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) remain optimistic a peace pact can be reached under reformist President Benigno Aquino III's term despite key differences that have stalled Malaysian-brokered negotiations. Those differences include the size of an expanded Muslim autonomous region in the southern Mindanao region and the powers to be accorded to Muslim officials, who would run it. In a new irritant, the fighters have protested the arrest by government forces of a rebel in southern Davao del Sur province over the weekend, saying it violated a ceasefire that shields the rebels from arrest in their strongholds. The military said the fighter, Galib dela Cruz, was wanted for murder and kidnapping and was illegally carrying assault firearms outside of a rebel camp. Among the historic sites that could be marked are Camp Abubakar in the mountainous heartland of southern Mindanao region, Leonen said. Leonen also said a marker should be installed on southern Basilan island, where the fighters were accused of beheading 10 Filipino marines during a 2007 clash. Philippine officials said they were mulling whether to ask the National Historical Institute to start studying where the monuments and markers could be installed in what could be a joint project by the government and the fighters, Deles said, adding that versions by both sides would be considered in portraying violent events.
