Friday, May 09, 2008 Gov’t firm in stand on peace talks with MILF
MALACAÑANG reiterated that it would only continue negotiations and agree to any settlement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) based on the 1987 Constitution.
Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said while the government is committed to moving the peace talks with the MILF forward, they believe that bringing the issue of ancestral domain to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) would not sway the government from deviating from their position.
He said following the constitutional provision is very fundamental that could no be based with.
“I don’t think bring that to the international court will change our position. As far as respecting the provisions of the Constitution, that will have to remain, that cannot be negotiated but just the same we’d like to move forward with the peace process,” he said.
Presidential peace adviser Jesus Dureza said he simply wished the MILF well in their proposal or plan.
MILF lawyer and senior negotiating panel Michael Mastura challenged the government to bring the ancestral domain agenda to the ICJ to help settle the issue once and for all.
Mastura made the proposal as the MILF blamed the government for the delay in the resolution of the ancestral domain agenda after the government stressed that it is still working on the proposed agreement.
“Our response seeks a parallel way out of this stone-wall mentality. So I have challenged government leaders to give consent and submit to the International Court of Justice the Bangsamoro-ancestral-domain Question, much like the Polisario case affecting the Western Sahara, for formal advisory opinion,” Mastura said at the Forum and Workshop in Cotabato City last Wednesday.
He was referring to the territorial dispute between the government of Morocco and the Popular Front for the Liberation of the Saguia el Hamra and Rio de Oro (Polisario) covering a 266,000 square meter in the northwestern tip of Africa where the United Nations had stepped in that led to an agreement for a ceasefire in anticipation of the conduct of a referendum which never materialized.
The UN Security Council in October 2006 passed Resolution 1720 reaffirming its support for the UN settlement plan of 1991 to allow those from Western Sahara to determine the future of the disputed territory in a referendum.
Morocco in April 2007 submitted a proposed autonomy to the UNSC that led to renewed talks which, but ended inconclusively with Polisario rejecting any solution short of a referendum for independence. (JMR/Sunnex)
