Info campaign on peace talks to be launched

THE government will launch a nationwide information campaign through print-radio-television and the internet to inform and consult the people through reflective dialogues on major issues being discussed in the peace talks.

Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Annabelle Abaya announced over the weekend that people from the cross-section of society, particularly in Mindanao, will be consulted before the government will make any decision on the resolution of the long-drawn Mindanao conflict.

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The Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (Opapp) will be the lead agency in the implementation of the project that will commence on February 16.

The Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) have exchanged their draft proposals in Kuala Lumpur last month in preparation for the resumption of formal peace talks that bogged down in August 2008 following the aborted signing of the controversial Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD).

But despite the fighting that broke out following the collapse of the negotiations, the government and the MILF panels continued their back-channeling efforts to keep the doors open for the re-opening of the peace talks.

Last December 8, after a 17-month lull in the peace talks, the two panels resumed their peace negotiations to find a lasting solution to the four decades of warfare in southern Philippines.

Abaya has expressed hope that a peace agreement between the government and the MILF will be signed soon following the revival of the peace talks.

She said the communication plan involves three components – radio, television and print, plus the Internet.

The famous Apo Hiking Society singing group has agreed as endorser for the government’s peace process info commercial.

Abaya explained that through reflective dialogues the voice of the people will be heard and considered, saying that the government will avoid the pitfall of the usual representation of question and answer program with various sectors.

She also said that the use of Abaya said the third is the use of the website so that all levels of society down to the grassroots can also make their opinions. (VR/Sunnex)