Friday, October 03, 2008 Japan vows to continue economic aid to Mindanao By Malu Cadelina Manar
KIDAPAWAN CITY -- A top Japanese official has assured Philippine government of its commitment to help rehabilitate conflict areas in Mindanao.
Tomonoro Kikuchi, first secretary of the Japanese Embassy in the country, said that despite the collapse in the peace negotiations between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), his government is still keen on continuing its socio-economic and rehabilitation programs in Mindanao.
"Japan has remained keen on continuing its socio-economic and rehabilitation programs in war-torn areas of Mindanao with or without the help of partner donor countries," Kikuchi said in a brief meeting with reporters in Cotabato City on Wednesday.
Kikuchi, senior reconstruction and development adviser of the Japanese Embassy, is set to join the next batch of the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team (IMT), which is helping oversee the ceasefire between the government and the MILF.
Both the Philippine government and MILF panels, along with the Malaysian government, have announced early last month that the IMT's operations would be extended this year.
The IMT, composed of police and military officers from Malaysia, Libya, Brunei, and a rehabilitation expert from Japan, was supposed to end last August.
Kikuchi said his government has felt some frustrations when the Philippine government's peace overtures with the MILF collapsed.
"But we have to cling to that slim chance of hope," he said.
Early August, the Philippine government has declared it won't negotiate with the MILF unless its officials turn over to authorities their field commanders who were believed responsible for the series of atrocities against civilians in North Cotabato, Lanao del Norte, and Maguindanao.
Rogue MILF Commanders Umbra Kato, Bravo, and Wahid Tandok launched bloody attacks in those areas in August that led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilians.
The attacks came after the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order that prevented the government peace panel members to sign the controversial Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) on the ancestral domain in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
