Ghazali Jaafar, vice chairman of the MILF, said the cease-fire would begin on June 2 to allow time for rebel commanders to spread the word to the group’s estimated 12,000 fighters.

“We wanted to give peace a chance in Mindanao,” Jaafar said in a radio interview. “The MILF is committed to a peaceful and politically negotiated settlement.”

Al-Haj Murad Ebrahim, MILF military chief, signed the declaration.

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu urged the government to reciprocate the cease-fire call by pulling out troops from places formerly held by separatist guerrillas, otherwise their fighters would resume fighting.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who won pledges of more US military aid during a visit to Washington this month, said Manila was assessing the sincerity of the offer, but called it a “positive and welcome development.”

“Based on our validation of certain assumptions, we are even prepared to respond with an offer of a permanent cease-fire leading to the signing of a final peace agreement at the soonest possible time,” she said in a statement.

The government recently shelved peace talks being brokered by Malaysia after a spate of attacks on the southern island of Mindanao, including three bombings that killed more than 210 people this year, all of which were blamed on the MILF.

Arroyo on May 17 ordered intensified military attacks against MILF units.

“We are awaiting the MILF’s positive response to our counteroffer,” the president said in a statement following a meeting of top security officials.

Arroyo also wanted to be sure that rebel leaders can enforce “discipline and compliance” among its fighters.

Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes said the government does not want a temporary cease-fire because the rebels have used such lulls in the past “to regroup and reorganize themselves, to get out of a tight situation.”

“What we are saying is that we want a permanent cease-fire and there will be a start of negotiations and then there would be a period during which a peace agreement will have to be signed,” he said.

Under Pressure

Lt. Gen. Roy Kyamko, chief of the military’s Southern Command, rejected the rebels’ cease-fire announcement as “a tactical move of the MILF because they are suffering heavy losses in the ongoing operations.”

“The only concession for them is to surrender,” Kyamko said, adding that it was up to the country’s political leadership to respond.

Kyamko said he also found it surprising that the MILF was calling for a cease-fire when the offensive was only after “terrorists involved in attacks.”

“They are barking up the wrong tree,” he said.

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said their cease-fire move was in response to calls from various groups for a halt to hostilities that has reportedly displaced thousands of villagers in the Lanao and Cotabato provinces. “They are demanding a declaration of a cease-fire, so we responded to these groups’ appeal,” Kabalu told The Associated Press.

In an interview with Arab News, Kabalu said among those who called for a cease-fire were the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), the Bishop-Ulama Conference of the Philippines (BUCP), as well as various peace advocates, civil society groups, both Muslim and Christians, and “well-meaning non-government organizations (NGOs).

Kabalu said the MILF cease-fire call is binding only to MILF forces and it’s up for the government to reciprocate or not. But he warned that it would be the lookout of the government if it ignores the opportunity to resume the stalled peace negotiations.

“Failure by the GRP (government) to implement the same would mean the resumption of the usual activity on the ground, that is, fighting,” Kabalu told Arab News.

He also demanded that the government implement agreements reached during past negotiations, brokered by neighboring Malaysia. In addition to troop withdrawals, the rebels want a lifting of murder charges against MILF leaders accused of recent bombing attacks.

The government says the MILF, which has been fighting for a separate Muslim homeland for more than three decades, risks being declared a terrorist organization unless it turns over those responsible for the recent attacks.

Skeptics

Government soldiers said they were skeptical about the rebels’ sincerity.

“I don’t believe their cease-fire declaration. If we relax, they will attack,” Pfc. Dofhil Pacheco told AP at an army hospital in southern city of Cagayan de Oro, where he was nursing arm and leg wounds from a gunbattle with the MILF two weeks ago.

Analysts said the MILF was reacting more to its losses from a stepped-up army push on Mindanao since February than the warm welcome, money and helicopters that Arroyo got in Washington.

“They’re under great pressure on the ground in Mindanao and from their own logistical problems. That was the effect intended by the military,” political analyst Alex Magno told Reuters.

Magno declined to speculate on the chances of the sporadic peace process bearing fruit this time, but said the opinions of army officers on Mindanao would weigh heavily on Manila’s decision about matching the cease-fire offer.

Francis Ricciardone, the US ambassador to the Philippines, said Washington could play a supporting role if it were invited.

“The US Congress has earmarked $30 million to support the peace process in the Philippines,” he told reporters. “That’s not money we’ll spend if there’s no peace.”

Mindanao is agriculturally rich but one of the poorest regions in the nation of 82 million people.

That poverty and a lack of development have helped to push disaffected Muslims into the arms of the MILF and several other separatist groups.

The renewed military offensive since February and MILF counter-attacks have displaced 410,000 people in Mindanao, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said yesterday.