#MILF

Following forty years of fighting and tens of thousands dead, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed a peace deal with President Benigno Aquino’s government at a high-profile ceremony in Manila on Thursday. The conflict over control of this resource-rich area stems from the claims of its Muslim population to an ancestral homeland, dating back […]

Thailand – A Thai HIV Vaccine trial, led by Dr. Supachai Rerks-Ngarm of the Department of Disease Control of the Thai Ministry’s Public Health Department, was successful in that it provided coverage to a small percentage of participants, which is better than any previous trial. A combination vaccine, using strains of HIV common in Thailand, […]

The Arroyo Administration and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) have signed an agreement to form an “International Contact Group” to help negotiate a peace agreement between the two sides in the  predominately Muslim island of Mindanao.  Got all that?  The agreement was signed in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.  For more background go here. – […]

The Arroyo Administration continues its two-prong approach to the Philippines’ decade old para-military terrorist problem.  The Filipino government has tried to renew peace talks with the Islamic separatist group, Moro Islamic Liberation Front  (MILF).  Although talks had been  intermittent since 2001,  an agreement was reached last years, only to be found unconstitutional by the Filipino […]

American President Barack Obama’s first meeting with Filipino President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo , which is also his first meeting with a Southeast Asian head of state, was overshadowed in the American press by the domestic melodrama, known as “Gates-Gate” or the “Beer Summit”.