BY VICTOR REYES

THE Moro Islamic Liberation Front considers the agreement on ancestral domain "a done deal" and expects the government to abide by its provisions despite its aborted signing yesterday, an MILF official said.

"The MILF leadership, which is the Central Committee of the MILF, has an official position. that the memorandum of agreement on the Bangsamoro Ancestral Domain has been signed," said Ghadzali Jaafar, MILF vice chairman for political affairs.

The scheduled signing of the memorandum of agreement (MOA) in Kuala Lumpur yesterday did not push through because of a temporary restraining order issued by the Supreme Court Monday.

Jaafar said the MILF considers the MOA binding because its draft agreement was "initialed" last July 27 in Kuala Lumpur by Rodolfo Garcia, government chief negotiator; Mohagher Iqbal, MILF chief negotiator; Hermogenes Esperon, presidential adviser on the peace process, and Datuk Othman bin Abdulrazak, chief peace facilitator for the Malaysian government.

"Our position is that after initialing, both parties initialed the MOA, that is a signing," Jaafar said.

Jaafar said the scheduled signing yesterday in Kuala Lumpur was merely "ceremonial and a formality, in a way to announce to all throughout the world that a memorandum of agreement has been signed but actually the signing, actual signing was done."

"So it's a done deal as far as the MILF is concerned," he said.

Jaafar said the MILF and the government set a ceremonial signing of the MOA "because this is a very important document."

"We want to be proud of it we want to announce it throughout the world that there is a memorandum of agreement between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the government of the Republic of the Philippines."

He said the MILF expects the government to abide by the MOA "because this agreement is binding on both parties."

INTERNAL PROBLEM

Jaafar said the Supreme Court's issuance of the TRO is the government's "internal problem." He said the MILF does not intend to interfere.

On what the MILF will do in the event the government refuses to abide by the agreement, Jaafar said: "That is a hypothetical question. We will answer that if that comes, not now."

Iqbal, in a statement posted at the MILF website, said: "We have initialed the text of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral domain last July 27, 2008. The pact is a done deal. It is binding on the contracting parties who are obliged to refrain from acts that would defeat the object and purpose of their agreement."

"The act of initialing the MOA-AD agreed text between the parties constitutes a signature of the Philippine government and MILF... (It) was done with a credible third party witness, the Malaysian government as facilitator of the talks since 2001," he added.

Iqbal said the MOA is legally binding even without the formal signing in Kuala Lumpur.

He also said the issuance of the TRO has no impact on the agreement. "Nothing. This is not even a setback to the MILF. We are on the upper hand especially in the battle for moral ascendancy."

"It is the Arroyo administration which is shamed in the eyes of the international community. There were so many ambassadors already in the Malaysian capital to attend the signing ceremony, only to be told that it was cancelled at the last minute," he said.

The MILF said that among the foreign dignitaries who were already in Kuala Lumpur to witness the ceremony were US Ambassador Kristie Kenney and Ambassador Sayed ElMasry, adviser to the secretary general of the Organization of Islamic Conference and special envoy for the peace process in the Southern Philippines.

Press Secretary Jesus Dureza said Esperon and the rest of the government negotiators explained to ElMasry and the diplomatic corps why the signing did not push through.

The government negotiators are expected to return to Manila today and brief President Arroyo, he said.

'110 CONSULTATIONS'

Dureza said Arroyo, when informed of the TRO, said the order would allow the MOA to "go through a constitutional test.and this will be good in the long term in our work for peace."

On complaints about the lack of consultations in provinces that will be affected by the MOA, Dureza said there have been "110 events of consultations."

The MOA will expand the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao which will be called the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity. The JBE proposes to include at least 700 barangays in non-ARMM provinces.

The TRO issued by the Supreme Court was on the petition of North Cotabato which opposes its inclusion in the JBE. A similar petition has been filed by Zamboanga City.

Caloocan Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez said the TRO would give stakeholders the chance to "scrutinize" the MOA.

Iñiguez is head of the public affairs committee of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.