Monday, July 07, 2008 Ledesma: Esperon as peace advocate By Jun Ledesma Sunbursts
RETIRED General Hermogenes Esperon's patience as government chief peace negotiator is undergoing an acid test. First month into his assumption of office as presidential assistant for peace process, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is displaying some disturbing belligerence.
Not only do they harass government peace keeping forces but military intelligence is also telling us that the MILF elements have set off powerful bombs in Transco power distribution towers, triggering blackouts in many places in Mindanao, specifically what used to be the conflict areas. The movement of armed MILF elements is causing anxiety in communities where they display some firepower.
Peace negotiator Esperon, however, is telling us that the incidence of clashes compared to what had been in the past remains to be very negligible. This simply means that the ceasefire agreement had been holding. He also expressed optimism that a formal peace accord will be signed soon or that at least the remaining issue of ancestral domain and exercise of governance and freedom will be resolved soon.
In a meeting with peace advocates and Mindanao stakeholders Esperon revealed that contrary to what were earlier published, the government panel had already submitted the cabinet cluster-approved draft on ancestral domain. The draft, he said was submitted to the Malaysian mediator and this was already forwarded to the MILF. Esperon is confident that most of the contentious issue will now be properly addressed.
Esperon has a different kind of mettle as chief peace negotiator. Nobody, he said, can question his sincerity in bringing the conflicts into a halt. He admits though that he is short of patience. He explained this by saying he personally wants to fast track the peace process to start with the massive development for Mindanao.
He said there are matters that need to be addressed soon like the duplicity of the role of the Moro National Liberation Front and the MILF. He said that the leaders of the two fronts are now talking to each other for the unity of purpose.
Esperon obviously is a quick learner. He appears to be well informed about the progress of the talks and he sees where this is going. He seemed to have mustered other viable political options like expanding the present juridical territories of the Bangsamoro peoples and working for and supporting the proffered federal form of government, which he said can respond to what the MILF demands.
Esperon is also emphatic in saying that in the conduct of the talks with the MILF, the issue of an independent Bangsamoro territory is out of the question. He stressed that the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Philippines must be respected.
The government is not averse to an expanded autonomous region, a federal state or a Bangsamoro Juridical Entity. He told the peace militants who sat down with him at the conference hall of Medco that even the members of the organization of Islamic countries are clear on the agenda that in negotiating for peace negotiators must have to respect the Philippine sovereignty.
The fronts might take umbrage on the appointment of General Esperon and might even doubt his seriousness and honesty having been in the helm of the armed forces of the Philippines, but as listening to him leaves very little doubt that citizen Esperon knows the primacy of peace that is why he took the job.
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Remember the banana growers who "pole-vaulted" from their principals with whom they have existing marketing contracts then sold their harvests to an Arab trading firm Abbar and Zainy for a few more cents?
Well, their farms are now infested by the deadly zigatoka virus. Worse, many of them have not been paid. The big ones among them are facing charges in court for breach of contract. Worse, they are now abandoned by their fly-by-night partners, their former principals do not want to have them back and whatever they earned from that dubious trading activity with ANZ is not even enough to rehabilitate their farms because of zigatoka and moko. Karma.
