June 20, 2001, Inquirer News Service, Mother, daughter released before start of peace talks,

PAGADIAN CITY--A mother and her daughter were released by their kidnappers yesterday morning, hours before peace talks between the Philippine government and the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) were to start in Tripoli, Libya. 

Lawyer Maridol Liong, 33, and her 5-year-old daughter Alexa--who were taken by gunmen on March 29 in Dipolog City--were freed in an undisclosed place in Tungawan, Zamboanga Sibugay. 

The military earlier said the kidnappers were members of a supposed MILF "special operation group" led by a certain Abdusallam Akiddin alias Commander Kiddie. But the MILF denied this. 

Ustadz Shariff Julabbi, MILF spokesperson in Western Mindanao, said Liong's husband James paid a "board and lodging fee" to the kidnappers. 

Julabbi said he helped bring about the Liongs' release after Undersecretary Jesus Dureza, presidential assistant for regional concerns in Southern Mindanao, asked him in April to do so. 

The government and the MILF were then engaged in preliminary talks. 

"I sent my men to the field to locate the victims," Julabbi said over radio station dzMM in Manila. 

Julabbi refused to say how much was paid. Reuters quoted him as saying that the kidnappers had earlier demanded ransom of P50 million. 

In Tripoli, Vice President and Foreign Secretary Teofisto Guingona told the news agency Jana that he was happy to be there, and praised the efforts of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to "bring about peace in the Philippines." 

Seif al-Islam, Gadhafi's son and the president of the Gadhafi Charity Foundation will preside over the talks, which Malaysian and Indonesian representatives, including Indonesian Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab, are attending. 

Among the issues to be put forward in the first round of talks is an MILF demand for the Philippine government to recognize more than 40 rebel-controlled areas, where there will be a complete "cessation of hostilities" in exchange for economic development. 

The MILF, which has been at war with the Philippine government for 23 years, was born out of a schism with the Moro National Liberation Front in 1978. 

It was left out of the 1996 negotiations between the government and the MNLF, which resulted in a peace agreement. 

Libya, Indonesia and Malaysia sponsored the 1996 negotiations. 

Independent state

In Davao City, Ghazali Jaafar, MILF vice chair for political affairs, said a "separate independent state" was still the vision of the secessionist group. 

But he conceded that the issue was a "ticklish" one. "The government will never accept the demand for a separate independent state," Jaafar, speaking in Filipino, said in an interview Tuesday afternoon. 

"It is insisting that the only solution is freedom. But right now this is not being discussed," he said.

Jaafar said the issue of an independent state might be presented later when the government and the MILF peace panels shall have agreed to continue talking even after forging an agreement on the three substantive issues up for discussion in Tripoli. 

These issues include a review of past agreements, the development of conflict areas, and ancestral domain. 

Jaafar said the Bangsamoro people would never accept an autonomous government. 

He cited past agreements, including that forged during the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos’ term, when the government agreed to set up an autonomous government for Western and Central Mindanao. 

"It was not effective," he pointed out, adding that the concept of an autonomous government was still not accepted during the term of President Corazon Aquino. 

"Up to now the problem continues," he said. 

Jaafar said the Bangsamoro people wanted a lasting solution to the Mindanao problem. 

He said the MILF had always batted for the holding of a referendum to chart the destiny of the Bangsamoro people. 

Under a referendum, which he described as the most effective formula to end the Mindanao problem, Jaafar said the MILF would have these four options: 

• · To remain part of the Philippine state under the status quo. 

• · To establish a federal form of government. 

• · To pursue an autonomous government. 

• · To set up an independent Bangsamoro state. 

However, Jaafar said, the proposal for a referendum has yet to be formally submitted. 

He said that for now, the MILF would focus on the three issues for discussion in Tripoli. Reports from Hernan P. de la Cruz and Ayan C. Mellejor, PDI Mindanao Bureau; Rocky Nazareno