MALAYSIA yesterday said it would keep its peace monitors in the Mindanao for another three months after appeals from both Manila and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

The decision came after Philippine officials and MILF negotiators met in Kuala Lumpur for the first time since violence flared in the South early this month.

"Malaysia has acceded to the government of the Philippines request for an extension of IMT (International Monitoring Team). A three-month period is a reasonable time to bring together the peace process," Malaysia’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

Malaysia has been brokering talks between the two sides since 2001 and in May began a phased withdrawal of its peacekeepers, citing the lack of progress in the peace talks. It now has 12 soldiers on the team, down from 41.

The unarmed monitors also include 10 soldiers from Brunei, two Libyan diplomats and a Japanese development worker.

There was no indication if the MILF and Philippine government negotiators had talked of anything other than agreeing on the request for Malaysia to extend its peacekeeping role beyond August 31, when its mandate was due to expire.

"We did not discuss any changes in the roles and composition of the parties involved in the IMT," said Mohaqher Iqbal, the MILF chief peace negotiator. "We valued the work of the IMT in preventing the conflict from getting out of hand."

Hermogenes Esperon, presidential adviser on the peace process, told ambassadors of Muslim nations earlier this week that the government has also asked 10 countries, including some Western states, to contribute to the peace monitoring team led by Malaysia.

The monitoring team has been in place in strife-torn areas of Mindanao since October 2004 and helped cut down skirmishes between troops and Muslim rebels from 700 incidents in 2002 to less than a dozen in 2007.

A peace deal between Manila and the MILF fell apart earlier this month when the Supreme Court halted an agreement between the two on expanding an autonomous Muslim region and giving it wide powers.

Some MILF guerrillas went on the rampage in anger, prompting the military to launch operations against them.

PRAYER FOR PEACE

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines appealed to the faithful to pray for peace in Mindanao.

"We offer this prayer as one nation and in solidarity with the Mindanao bishops as well as the thousands of innocent people who are forced to evacuate and live in uncertainty and fear because of the current crisis and war," said CBCP president Archbishop Angel Lagdameo.

Asked if this is an appeal from the CBCP for a cease-fire, Lagdameo said: "Our prayer is already indirectly a call for cease-fire because we are praying for peace. We don’t have to say it that we are calling for peaceful solution into this conflict."

COMPREHENSIVE PLAN

The Commission on Human Rights urged Malacañang to draw up a comprehensive plan to address the needs of Mindanao residents displaced by the conflict.

CHR chair Leila de Lima said the number of displaced persons has been growing in the past weeks since the MILF attacked a number of Mindanao provinces.

De Lima said reports reaching her office placed the number of affected persons at 200,000. She said the number is already too great for local government units to manage.

VIGILANTES

Lawmakers and human rights group Amnesty International expressed alarm over an apparent resurgence of post-martial law era vigilantism in Mindanao as civilian groups feel compelled to arm themselves to meet the threat of attacks from the MILF.

Reps. Rafael Mariano (PL-Anakpawis), Edno Joson (Nueva Ecija), Ammylou Taliño-Mendoza (North Cotabato) and Maria Isabelle Climaco (Zamboanga City) said involvement by vigilante groups in future clashes with the MILF separatists would only lead to escalation of violence in the region.

"We demand that Ms. Arroyo immediately disarm and dismantle this armed group. In the first place, it is her security officials who are totally obsessed in vigilantism and instigated this through their call to arm civilians," Mariano said, noting that it is the slow response of the military in protecting villages from MILF attacks that is fueling vigilantism.

RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

Dr. Aurora Parong, Amnesty International-Philippines section director, said that based on the country’s history, all vigilante groups have always ended up committing human rights violations against the civilian population they originally set out to protect.

"The Philippine government should take responsibility for protecting all civilians in Mindanao, whether they are Christians, Muslims, Lumads or coming from any ethnicity or religion. Protecting civilians does not mean arming them. We do not want to return to a period in our country when vigilante groups attacked civilians with impunity," she said.

Parong noted that vigilante groups like Alsa Masa, Tadtad and Ilaga all committed "gross human rights violations" and became problems for law enforcement agencies.

MORE ASSISTANCE

President Arroyo ordered all government agencies to intensify relief assistance efforts for the displaced residents.

"There will be more funds to be downloaded. The President has called everyone to pitch in especially the national government agencies," said Press Secretary Jesus Dureza.

Arroyo also enjoined government agencies to undertake peace building-related activities like contests, seminars, concerts and film showings as she declared September this year as the "peace building month."