The Philippine government will no longer sign a Moro homeland deal amid mounting opposition and questions about its constitutionality, Arroyo administration officials disclosed Saturday. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo herself hinted of the major policy shift, telling visiting Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah on Friday night that the Philippine government would now be playing only a “supporting role” in the search for peace with Muslims in Mindanao. Arroyo told Al-Sabah that she would let civil society groups iron out the problems in the peace process with Muslim residents of Mindanao. “Yes, there are political dynamics. We are working to sort them out. The government will assume a supporting role and let non-government organizations' support on the peace efforts spearhead the discussions for the problematic concerns. We want to end the conflict that clearly claimed more than 120,000 lives,” she told the Kuwaiti prime minister. Malaca?ang officials revealed that Arroyo's peace negotiators will no longer sign the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) and will instead try to renegotiate with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The officials said the government envoys will shortly inform the MILF, the Malaysian government and the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) about its decision not to sign the MOA-AD, which was supposed to have been done last Aug. 5 in Malaysia. __
