Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo appointed a new peace adviser Wednesday to boost her government's efforts to revive stalled peace talks with communist and Muslim rebel groups.
Executive secretary Eduardo Ermita said Arroyo named former police chief Avelino Razon as the new presidential peace adviser, replacing former armed forces chief Hermogenes Esperon.
Peace talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the largest Muslim rebel group, was stalled in August 2008 after the Supreme Court stopped the signing of a key territory agreement, reported dpa.
MILF rebels attacked towns and seized villages and subsequent clashes with government troops resulted in the killing of more than 200 people and displaced more than 500,000.
Arroyo has assembled a new government peace panel to negotiate with the 12,000-strong MILF, which has been fighting for an independent Islamic state since 1978.
"I hope 2009 will be a comeback year for peace, progress and prosperity in Mindanao," she told foreign diplomats who attended her annual party at the presidential palace on Tuesday.
Peace talks with communist guerrillas have been suspended since 2004 after the rebels demanded that the government take steps to remove them from terrorist blacklists of the United States, the European Union and other countries.
The leftist guerrillas also rejected a precondition by the government that a ceasefire must be in place before peace negotiations could start.