Monday, December 03, 2007 Espejo: Don't rejoice yet By Edwin G. Espejo Southern Comfort
THE breakthrough in the impasse in the peace negotiations between the government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia has given government negotiators high hopes for peace to finally reign in Mindanao.
Reading the fine prints of the Jeddah Joint Statement, however, there is no basis to conclude, as yet, that a peace agreement between the two warring parties will finally be signed between now and 2010 when the Arroyo government steps down from office.
True, the Philippine government and the MILF agreed to hold formal talks on the scope and coverage of the thorny ancestral domain issue in an effort to resuscitate the peace negotiations that collapsed in 2001 when the government laid siege to Camp Abubakar.
But these latest efforts to revive the peace talks offer no immediate measures to end the armed hostilities in the region.
In fact, the joint statement even fanned the flames of uncertainty.
First, it failed to outline the basis and extent of definition of the Bangsa Moro ancestral domain.
Second, its timeline of one year to draft a memorandum of agreement in time for the resumption of the formal peace talks early next year is only giving pressure to both panels in the peace negotiation to agree to a point of reference in the definition of the Moro homeland.
Third, whatever scope and coverage or limitation of a new Bangsa Moro "juridical entity" that will be agreed upon will not necessarily constitute the Bangsa Moro homeland as government is insistent that these thorny issues would have to pass the approval of Congress and ratified through a plebiscite.
In a recent interview, presidential adviser on the peace process Jesus Dureza said he is confident that Congress will be able to draft a bill that would define the areas that will constitute the Bangsa Moro homeland. It is better said than done though.
The 1976 Tripoli Agreement and the 1996 Jakarta Peace Accord led to the holding of referenda that were supposed to identify the areas to be covered by Moro self-rule after decades of armed hostilities between the government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).
These agreements and the two plebiscites did not put an end to the Moro armed resistance as the MNLF splintered into two, giving rise to the MILF that repudiated both peace pacts.
Both the government and the MILF will have to burn a lot of candles to come up with a comprehensive definition of the Moro homeland short of breaking up the integrity of the Philippine territory.
That definition will have to pass the scrutiny of politicians in Congress and hurdle the test of acceptability from both the MNLF and the MILF as it now appears that the present Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm) will eventually be subsumed into the new Bangsa Moro juridical entity as envisioned.
So don't rejoice yet. The road to peace cannot just be made easy by mere proclamation of breakthroughs.
