COTABATO -- At least 60 Moro rebels have surrendered to government security forces in the southern Philippines on Thursday ahead of scheduled talks resumption this month in Kuala Lumpur, an Army official said Friday.
Marceliano Teofilo, commanding officer of the Army's 68th Infantry Battalion, said the rebel returnees operating in the town of Tulunan in North Cotabato province have also surrendered 36 assorted weapons when they were formally accepted by Mayor Lani Candolada.
Teofilo said the government under the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace Process will provide livelihood development, food and shelters to the returnees.
"Some of them are farmers. They decided to give up their struggle to live a normal life in their communities," the military official said.
Von Al Haq, spokesman for the rebel group, said they will verify if those who surrender were legitimate members of their organization.
The Philippine Government and the MILF members will resume their peace talks anytime this month in Malaysia to find a " political solution" to the decades-old conflict in the region.
Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Quintos- Deles remains hopeful that government's efforts in the negotiating table will soon bear fruit, citing the peace negotiations with the MILF are still on track.
In September this year, formal peace talks were stalled following the rejection of the MILF on the government's proposed comprehensive peace compact with the Muslim rebels.
The government has been offering enhanced autonomy to the MILF, while the rebels have been seeking for creation of a sub-state that will end the decades-old conflict in Mindanao.
The MILF has been fighting with government troops for decades to establish a self-rule Muslim sub-state in the south of the predominantly Catholic country. Peace talks between the government and the MILF stalled in August 2008 following the aborted signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain.
A final peace deal with the government will touch the issues of autonomy and the civil settlement of the rebel group's 11,800- strong guerrilla fighters.