Thursday, August 07, 2008 Piñol-Esperon friendship affected by BJE controversy
THE controversy over the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE) has affected the friendship of North Cotabato Vice Governor Emmanuel Piñol and Presidential Adviser on Peace Process Secretary Hermogenes Esperon Jr.
In a press conference Tuesday, Piñol admitted that his friendship with Esperon was strained by their different stand on the BJE issue.
It was learned that Esperon was irked by a statement attributed to Piñol accusing the peace adviser as "walang bayag."
Piñol said he readily called Esperon to explain.
"I told him that indeed I said something about walang bayag but that I was not referring to him specifically but to the Arroyo administration. Sabi naman nya okay na yun, wala na daw syang problema dun," Piñol narrated.
On the same conversation, the vice governor informed Esperon of their strong opposition to the memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain (MOA-AD) and that they have filed a case before the Supreme Court (SC).
Piñol said the peace process secretary suddenly raised his voice over the phone and told him that "Kapag na-TRO (referring to the petition to the Supreme Court to issue a temporary restraining order) kami at umatake ang MILF, bahala na kayo sa sarili ninyo. Hindi magpapakamatay ang mga sundalo namin para sa inyo."
Piñol admitted being offended by Esperon's statement, saying the secretary seemed to have bullied him during their conversation.
The vice governor said he simply told Esperon that his friendship and respect for the secretary remains no matter what.
After his conversation with Esperon, Piñol decided to spread a text message informing his constituents about Esperon's warning.
For this, the vice governor said, he apologized for having done such but said he was just concerned with Esperon's warning.
Esperon and Piñol's friendship started when Esperon was assigned in North Cotabato as a brigade commander of the Philippine Army during Piñol's term as governor. Esperon even made Piñol godfather of one of his children.
The vice governor said he is not breaking ties with Esperon just because of their differences over the BJE issue.
But aside from Esperon, another government official just might have another word war with the vice governor and that is Press Secretary Jesus Dureza.
This developed after Dureza lambasted Piñol for making "irresponsible" statements that he said could worsen the situation in Mindanao following the postponement of the signing of the MOA-AD.
Dureza was referring to Piñol's claim that the military will not come to the aid of North Cotabato residents in case of an MILF attack because of the local officials' opposition to the MOA-AD.
Dureza said he does not believe Esperon can make such statement and called Piñol irresponsible for spreading false information.
"It's very irresponsible for a government official to even say na you know iniwanan na kami ng gobyerno at bahala na kami sa buhay namin and we have to take up arms ourselves to defend ourselves. Baka naman there is some drama there," Dureza said in a television interview.
Instead of calming the people, Dureza said Piñol was even agitating them to rebel against the government.
"Alam naman ni Manny na hindi niya kaya sa armas yan kahit marami ang tao niya kaya na patahimikin ang problema na yan kung sibilyan ang gagamitin niya mas lalong magkaka-problema ang area natin (Piñol knows he cannot take up arms even though he has many supporters. If he uses the civilians, it will only aggravate the situation)," Dureza added.
Piñol said on Tuesday that the controversial MOA-AD must not be blamed on Esperon since he is just new to the position as Opapp chair. He said those who were in the position prior to Esperon must be the ones who will be held accountable for the fiasco. (BOT)
