New group created vs Moro 'substate'

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

DAVAO CITY -- A new group led by former Cotabato governor Manny Piñol warned Monday that it will oppose the creation of a Moro "substate".

Piñol said the group, known as Christian Leaders Convergence, will also campaign against the expansion of areas currently covered by the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm).

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In a closed-door meeting with University of the Philippines College of Law dean Marvic Leonen, chair of the Philippine government peace panel that is holding peace negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Piñol also called for the disarming of all armed groups in Mindanao.

"Madugong usapin (It's a bloody issue) but it can be done," Pinol said.

However, the former Cotabato governor, who admitted that among the members of the Christian Convergence are active elements of the shadowy paramilitary group Ilaga, said they are in full support of the government position in the peace process.

Most of those who attended the closed-door meeting held at the Marco Polo Hotel in Davao City are incumbent and former local officials of Cotabato.

Leonen later told reporters that as chair of the government panel (GPH), it is his job to reach out to all stakeholders in the ongoing peace process.

He was scheduled to meet the government subcommittee on the ceasefire and cessation of hostilities (CCCH) in Cotabato City Wednesday to update it on the results of the Kuala Lumpur meeting between the GPH panel and the MILG negotiating team.

On August 22, the government submitted an 11-point agenda to go along with its "3 for 1" formula to solve the four-decade long Mindanao conflict.

The MILF peace panel promptly rejected the government proposal that included a joint GPH-MILF development committee in "conflict affected areas", the possible creation of a Bangsmoro Commission and the "rewriting of the history" of the Mindanao conflict.

The MILF later backtracked and said it will submit the government draft proposal to the Moro rebel group's central committee. The MILF peace panel, however, said it will recommend the rejection of the government draft proposal.

MILF peace panel chair Mohagher Iqbal described the difference between the two draft proposals as "heaven and earth."

No date has been set for the next round of peace talks between the government and the MILF.

The MILF peace panel earlier submitted its revised final working draft, which included the creation of a Moro substate.

The rebel group also said that it wants a six-year transition period for the creation of a Bangsamoro Assembly and two seats in the Philippine Senate that will be elected by a Moro district.

Leonen described the MILF final draft proposal as not "an easy read" with many terminologies needed to be clarified.

He, however, assured the Pinols that they have not committed anything to the MILF except that both panels agreed to fast-track the negotiations.

The GPH chair said the MILF draft is a 49-page revised version of the rebel group's January 2010 working draft proposal while the document the government submitted in Kuala Lumpur is composed of 20 pages.

Leonen said nothing substantial is different between the MILF's January 2010 draft proposal and the one submitted by the MILF in February this year.

He declined to give details of both draft proposals except what has been reported in the press.

Leonen, however, said both peace panels agreed to refrain from making any reference to the botched Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain, which was initialed by previous peace panels in July 2008. (Sun.Star Davao/Sunnex)