February 18, 2010 - The nine-man Malaysian Advance Team of the International Monitoring Team (IMT) for the peace process between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) have met with the Central Committee of the MILF this morning in Darapanan, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao.

The courtesy call lasted for more than two (2) hours before the reconnaissance team departed for Iligan City to visit the IMT teamsite there, and from there they will proceed to Zamboanga City to see one of the hardcore spoilers of the GRP-MILF peace process, Mayor Celso Lobregat.

Lobregat, a descendant of a Spanish soldier, opposed the deployment of the IMT in Zamboanga City, saying the city has never been a part of the Moro ancestral homeland.

However, Zamboanga City was used to be the capital of the Moro Province during the American colonial days in Mindanao.

Heading the recce team is Lt. Gen. Datuk Raja Mohammed Affendi bin Raja Mohamed, Chief of Staff of the Malaysian Armed Forces Headquarters. Other members of the team are the incoming Head of Mission of the IMT, BGen Datuk Baharom Bin Hamza, Noor Hisham Bin Rosle of the Ministry of Defence, Asst Supt Police Haizam Shah Bin Othman, Lt Col Ahmad Jamaludin Bin Royan, Lt Col Ibrahim Bin Yasir, Lt Cdr Anas Bin Yahya and Col Mohd Zahar Hashim, Defence Attache of the Malaysian Embassy in Manila.

The meeting with the MILF officials was warmth and cordial, reminiscent of past memories of all previous IMTs that were deployed in Mindanao since 2004.

The IMT mandate is renewed by the Parties on a yearly basis, but on November 30, 2008 it was not renewed, because the peace talks collapsed after the government peace panel failed to sign the GRP–MILF Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) in August 2008. However, in December last year the two Parties decided to talk again. The IMT now is composed of Malaysia, Brunei, Japan, Libya, and hopefully Qatar, Indonesia and Norway, which were officially invited by the GRP and MILF Peace Panels during the same meeting in Kuala Lumpur.

The mandate of the IMT is to monitor the implementation of the GRP–MILF agreements on ceasefire, rehabilitation and development and civilian protection.

From Zamboanga City, the IMT recce team will directly fly to Manila, instead of going back to Cotabato City where the headquarters of the IMT is located.