Wednesday, November 21, 2007 Maxey: One Armm is better than two By Ram Maxey Bar None
FIRST, the good news.
Presidential adviser on the peace process Jesus Dureza disclosed the other day that a breakthrough has been reached in the peace talks between the Philippine government and representatives of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), and that the two sides are expected to set the timeline for the peace negotiations. He didn't say when.
Dureza said the "favorable points reached by both panels in the remaining but contentious issues of the talks have put forward the government's determined effort to seek a just conclusion to the peace process.
Now, the bad news.
Before everybody starts celebrating over that bit of information, let us hear what the other side has to say about the peace talks. Mohagher Iqbal, chairman of the MILF peace panel, said: "the remaining unresolved issues are even more contentious. Expect more and more deadlocks in the future. The road to peace is full of twists and turns."
After more than a year of talks had managed to hurdle the contentious issue on areas covered by the ancestral domain which is supposed to be under MILF self-rule, Iqbal has dropped a bombshell that promises to drag further the peace talks.
And what about the opinion of the leaders of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), the older former secessionist group from which the MILF broke away? They insist that the peace negotiations with the MILF are illegal because the government has already forged a peace settlement with them. Oh my, here we go again.
The GRP-MNLF peace agreement in 1996 that led to the creation of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm) may yet be jeopardized by the fact that part of the Armm's area of responsibility is expected to be covered by the separate peace agreement with the MILF. Will the MNLF, still a potent armed force, take it lying down? Secretary Dureza will have to do a lot of explaining how that minor wrinkle can be smoothened to the satisfaction of both secessionist groups.
Khaled Musa, MILF deputy chair for information, said that his group had been reaching out to "our brethren (MNLF) to have a common stand on Mindanao issues that affect the Moro people. After all we cannot have two Armms."
Musa is right. This is a case where one Armm is better than two Armms.
Perhaps there is some truth to what Iqbal said about the peace process facing a lot of twists and turns before the foundations of lasting peace and development in Mindanao are finally laid. That could be a long wait given the history of the peace talks. But if everything goes well and ends well, the wait may be worth it after all. We can only hope there will be no Armm-twisting that will unnecessarily further delay the peace process.
