This past Thursday, there was a deadly bomb attack in the Philippines. Three people were killed outside an Air Force base. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) , the largest Muslim rebel group in the Philippines , denied any involvement in the attack but was accused by the regional police chief. There are other Muslim armed groups like the Abu Sayyaf, which could have been involved in the bombing. Peace monitors arrived in 2004, which "reduced the level of violence to nearly zero." Conversely, rebel negotiators walked away in December from a meeting that was part of peace talks that began in 1997. One of the main questions is finding a joint "determination of the scope of the Muslim homeland" in the Philippines, while there has been fighting for a separate Islamic state since the 1970s. Carlos H. Conde points out in the New York Times that a peace deal might be difficult to reach when the state cannot constitutionally hand over sovereign rights to territory.
This past week, the former top Muslim insurgent , Nur Misuari , said that the Muslim National Liberation Front (MNLF) should abide by a 1996 agreement with the national government. Agence France Press reported that Misuari said that if the government failed to give the full autonomy the group was seeking, then they would march for peace. Misuari said he would work for a federal form of government with four states. To date, approximately 120,000 people have been killed, and about 2 million people were displaced in the Philippines. Despite these statistics, President Arroyo has spoken extensively about peace building and the role of dialogue. She has said, "I have personally advanced the process of peace in Muslim and Christian Mindanao to a new level of engagement, focused on interfaith dialogue, economic development and mutual security."
