Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said Friday a deal to end a Muslim separatist conflict in the south could not be reached in her final month in office, but said she would continue to support the peace talks. Arroyo brought the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) back to the negotiating table, and tapped the Malaysian government to help facilitate talks, after her predecessor waged an all-out war on Mindanao island in 2000. However, negotiators said a peace deal would have to be left to the incoming government, with Senator Benigno Aquino III set to be declared the country's next President after elections earlier this month. “As president, I fought every day in office to bring that peace to that great island,” Arroyo, who will become a member of Congress after her term ends on June 30, told a forum of international peace negotiators. “And I will continue to do so until the last moment of my term as president and maybe even beyond, because as congresswoman, I will file the bills that I feel are needed in order to bring just and lasting peace to Mindanao.” Arroyo's peace adviser, Annabelle Abaya, said no consensus has been forged as yet on issues such as territorial coverage, wealth and power sharing. “If you try and ram it down people's throat, you can create an instability which is not good for our people,” Abaya said. Negotiators from both sides said they would return to Kuala Lumpur next week to agree on mechanisms to sustain a shaky ceasefire and allow the European Union to participate in the peace process, but no long-term deal was expected. A workable and sustained resolution to the conflict would remove a long-term investment risk in the poor Southeast Asian state, and would help improve access to plantations, mines and offshore oil and gas fields on the resource-rich Mindanao. Aquino has said he would pursue talks with the MILF, the country's largest Muslim guerrilla group, and communist guerrillas behind a separate insurgency, in a bid to attract investment and create jobs in rural communities. Aquino's peace adviser, Teresita Quintos-Deles, said the incoming team would first focus on helping 150,000 displaced people in the south, and injecting fresh momentum in the talks. “The next administration will review the 2010 budget to see if we can find enough funds to provide food, rebuild homes and create livelihoods for displaced families in the next six months,” she told Reuters at the forum. “We also have a wide budget gap to consider, but I am sure there could be funds somewhere.”
