LAST week, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo came to town. She met with the Bishops and Ulamas at the Insular Hotel where she was handed a very important output of the Muslim and Christian clerics who had spent enormous time and efforts to assemble a valuable assortment of documents that contains the concerns and sentiments of various sectors in Mindanao in the elusive search for peace in the region.

The mindset of many is that the conflicts in Mindanao are essentially on the issue of secessionism. Fr. Bert Alejo, who is fast becoming a truly social scientist, succinctly described the conditions that bedevil the region. Bloody confrontations happen between tribes, clans, families, warlords and who knows, if I may add, among drug lords. People take up arms because they feel they are not secure.

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There's something there too in what MILF Chairman Murad Ibrahim raised in his most recent statement. He is concerned of the next generation growing up in an atmosphere of war. He therefore wants to see an end to the conflict and I take that to mean coming out with a viable peace accord.

The Bishop-Ulama Conference perspective becomes vital in peace negotiation. They have done a very exhaustive research and study and translated these to a thesis devoid of biases or prejudices. If there were any, I am certain they have found grounds of commonality over countervailing issues therefore making it a valuable reference manuscript for the peace talk. And yet the BUC does not assert ascendancy over the MILF and government peace negotiators.

When they meet, and hopefully soon, we hope that the members of the peace panel will absorb inspiration from what their respective spiritual leaders had put together. This may just be ancillary to the issues that they have already crafted but we expect this to add light and substance to their debate.

Which reminds me, we should appreciate the role of BUC in pushing for the certification of the Mindanao Economic Development Authority (Meda)bill as a priority and all the way to its enactment as a law.

The Meda bill seems to be heading to the catacombs of forgetfulness as the Congress leaderships seemed to be more engrossed with Manny Pacquiao and elections. Well, PGMA seemed to be in a good mood after meeting with City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who by the way escorted her from the airport and back, she promised the BUC and members of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry that she will certify the bill as "urgent".

Still, certifying the bill as "Urgent" is one thing, getting the Houses of Congress to approve it is another. Remember that there were attempts in the past to create a Mindanao Development Authority. President Cory, for reasons I still cannot comprehend up to this time doused water into it. What was perpetuated was the Southern Philippines Development Authority which, to the credit of the Marcos appointed managers, was doing very well. But the moment the new centurions took over, SPDA's resources quickly dissipated with funds going to guns and ammos and to ghost duck projects to name a few.

The Mindanao Economic Development Council is doing well except that some crackpots in the government bureaucracy wanted it placed under the National Economic Development Authority (Neda).

Neda is practically irrelevant in Mindanao and it wanted to make use of the enormous data that Medco had built for decades by taking the short-cut: placing Medco as one of the support agency. It is like having a company of soldiers under a command of a non-com officer. Whoever engineered that plot ought to be guillotined.

What could save him or her will be Meda because then those who labored hard for Medco to become the only institution that is focused for the development of Mindanao is Medco. Paul Dominguez, Angie Angliongto, Jess Dureza and now the indefatigable Vir Leyretana. Undersecretary Leyretana labored day and night, getting things done quickly but not hastily. Sometimes he misses lunch and his few remaining strands of hairs. It is amazing how he can muster enough vim and vigor with tact and aplomb and get too many things done. Now you see him in Jolo, the next time in Cotabato and then back to his office talking and working with his staff while having lunch at 2 p.m. It is an expensive venture to interview him by mobile phone because you will never know whether he is in Davao or in Kuala Lumpur or Singapore fulfilling bilateral commitments.

To close, I want to quote Undersecretary Leyretana on Meda: "The enactment of Meda into a law is an indelible legacy of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for Mindanao and Mindanaowons". Amen.