MANILA, July 18 Kyodo President G...

MANILA, July 18 Kyodo

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said Friday the regulation and separatist Muslim rebels have agreed upon a temporary cease-fire while the pair sides prepare to start talks to expiration decades of war in the southern Philippines.

Arroyo said in a statement that arrest warrants against the 10 members and staff of the Moro Islamic Liberation head (MILF) panel have been suspended and rewards for their arrests or capture have been lifted.

''Today the peace panels of our guidance and the Moro Islamic Liberation assurance (MILF) have agreed on a mutual cessation of hostilities,'' Arroyo said. one as well as the other panels agreed to start the cease-fire in succession Saturday.

She said the ''breakthrough is the inference of the relentless back-channeling efforts undertaken according to government representatives over several month in the Philippines and abroad.''

''I am directing the (military) to downgrade our operational status from punitive operations to active defense This is in line with the policy of calibrated reciprocity that will continue to guide our actions in the peace process'' the president said.

''Safe mode of action passes will be issued in this way that they can travel to the venue of the negotiations,'' Arroyo added.

Those given safe mode of action passes were MILF chairman Hashim Salamat and his comrades Al Hadz Ibrahim Murad, Aleem Aziz Mimbantas, Ghadzali Jaafar, Eid Kabalu Nortel, Datucan Abas Mogagher Iqbal, Lanag Li, Omas Pasigan, Nurudin Ibrahim and Toks Ibrahim.

Arroyo called onward the panels ''to immediately register in formal talks towards a final peace agreement.''

''I anticipate the deployment of a Malaysian cease-fire regarder team soon. We are teaming up with our partners in the Organization of Islamic parley (OIC) to ensure the effectiveness and durability of this effort,'' Arroyo said.

MILF spokesman Kabalu said they welcome the cease-fire agreement and the lifting of arrests warrants. ''It's a welcome progress to maturity We can move freely without the fear of being harassed,'' he told Kyodo freshs by telephone.

Arroyo appealed to the the public ''to give peace a chance.''

''As we address the primitive words of rebellion and secession, I am confident that we shall also effectively isolate and marginalize the dwindling terrorist small cavitys in Mindanao and across our seas in the region,'' she said.

With a membership of about 12000 the MILF is generally the country's largest Muslim separatist rebel assemblage fighting for an independent state in the southern Philippines' Mindanao Islands.

Intermittent efforts at the two sides to negotiate a final peace agreement bogg down earlier this year befitting to fierce clashes. Malaysia has agreed to army the planned formal peace talks between the sum of two units sides.

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