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PHILIPPINE NEWS SERVICE — THE government will resume negotiations with the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front on Feb. 18 after the Cabinet security cluster yesterday approved a new draft on the ancestral domain agreement that will include “generally worded principles on governance.”

President Arroyo has ordered the government’s negotiating panel to present the new agreement on territory to the Malaysian facilitators immediately in time for the scheduled two-day executive session next week.

“The Cabinet security cluster has already approved the agreement. We are going back to the original consensus points,” chief government negotiator Rodolfo Garcia said after the National Security Council-Cabinet meeting at the Palace.

“There will be some aspect of governance that will be included in the draft ancestral domain agreement.”

The government and the MILF are waiting to sign a peace agreement to end the group’s fight for a separate nation, but the two sides are divided over the size of the MILF’s future autonomous territory.

Garcia said that when the 15th exploratory talks were aborted in December, among the things the MILF rejected was the government’s decision to leave out the aspect of governance in the draft agreement.

“Before, we omitted governance but now we will include this—in general principle—along with the three other components of[the MILF’s] ancestral domain of concept, territory, and resources,” he said.

Garcia also confirmed that a two-day executive session was held in Kuala Lumpur from Jan. 31 to Feb.1, and which the MILF had attended.

“This is the only remaining hurdle,” Garcia said.

“The signing of the ancestral domain agreement is already assured, and it is just a matter of timing. We just have to clear this forthcoming executive session, and the signing will be the most natural thing to expect.”

The government wants to forge the peace agreement with the MILF before the international monitoring team leaves the country to ensure that all negotiations take place while the Malaysia-led observers are still in Mindanao.

The observers are there to help enforce the ceasefire agreement between the rebels and government troops.