Mohagher Iqbal, chief negotiator for the 12,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), said it was determined to press ahead with negotiations despite the recent setbacks.
"The process is very hard and tough but that will not deter us from doing everything possible to make it happen," Iqbal told AFP after a 10-day session of talks ended on Sunday without agreement on key issues.
"Peace is at stake. No one wants to spoil it," he said.
The MILF is the main rebel group that has been fighting since the 1970s for an independent or autonomous homeland in the southern Philippines for the nation's Muslim minority.
Tens of thousands of people have died in the conflict.
The MILF and President Benigno Aquino's government signed an accord in March that laid out a roadmap for final peace by mid-2016.
Under the peace accord, the MILF would have control of a new southern autonomous region, and the rebels would lay down their arms.
However, the peace process has since become bogged down in finalizing the most sensitive issues in a draft law to create the autonomous region, such as who would be in control of security and budgets.
By Ruchi Singh
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
