PREPARATIONS are now in place to document Bohol 's efforts and model the provincial peace initiatives for replication in other places with similar efforts. Bohol peace efforts came to the attention of the government after the Office of the Presidential Assistant on the Peace Process recorded successes in the collaboration of sectors here as a crucial step in lessening local resistance and beckoning insurgents back to the folds of the law.

Bohol 's efforts were also documented following lofty awards as Best Peace and Order Council in the region and competes among the top in the country. This it attained while pooling volunteers for continuing human rights advocacies parallel with military solutions and civil military operations. Along all these, the province also put in poverty alleviation assistance to rebel-affected communities to box communities in and isolate the rebels to think of their lost cause. This way, rebels have lost villages once identified as threatened of infiltrated back to the mainstreams. In similar developments, Malacanang recently hailed the resumption of formal peace talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Kuala Lumpur .

This "signals the advancement of Mindanao peace agenda that has drawn the interest and support of the international community," Presidential Spokesman Ignacio R. Bunye said. "There is much room for optimism that an agreement will be finalized this year," he added. Topping the agenda in the resumed government-MILF talks is the contentious issue of ancestral domain. Both panels had expressed optimism that before the end of the year a final peace accord could be reached and pave the way for the decades old Mindanao conflict.
The promise of peace in Mindanao has opened the way for new possibilities for the economic development of the region by way of massive government financing and foreign assistance. The United States , Japan , Australia and several Islamic countries are among the foreign countries raring to pour funding into development projects in Mindanao.
The formal GRP-MILF talks resumed recently in Kuala Lumpur , with both sides expressing optimism that the ancestral domain, the most contentious issue of the peace talks, would be threshed out. (rachiu/PIA)