Friday, August 22, 2008 Aquino, Ramos urge negotiations between gov’t, MILF
FORMER Presidents Corazon Aquino and Fidel Ramos on Thursday advised the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to return to the negotiating table and not give up the quest for peace.
Aquino and Ramos’s stand on the ongoing conflict in Mindanao contradicts the call of another former President Joseph Estrada for an all-out war against the MILF as a solution to the decade-old conflict that has killed more than 100,000 from both sides as well as non-combatants.
During a mass held at the Manila Memorial Park in Parañaque City to commemorate the assassination of her husband, former senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., Mrs. Aquino said: “I am very sorry for all the victims of the ongoing war in Mindanao. It is still better to talk than fight.”
Mrs. Aquino initiated peace talks with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) headed by Nur Misuari when she came to power in the aftermath of the 1986 People Power uprising that toppled the Marcos dictatorship as part of the government’s reconciliation program
She likewise freed National Democratic Front (NDF) chairman Jose Maria Sison and other high-ranking communist leaders from incarceration and held talks with the NDF and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA)
Ramos, for his part, said the Arroyo administration should return to the negotiating table and pursue transparent peace talks with all stakeholders before pursuing the disputed agreement it plans to forge with the MILF.
He said before amending the Constitution to accommodate the provisions of the memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain (MOA-AD), Malacañang should first gather the elders, community and religious leaders of Mindanao to discuss, debate and decide on the issue of creating a Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE).
“The ball is now in the court of the Chief Executive but there is a scarcity of political will on the part of the elected officials. What the government should do is gather first the elders and all stakeholders in the region to decide on the MOA issue,” he said after attending another mass for the late senator at the Don Bosco Church in Makati.
Aside from the elders and community leaders of Mindanao, Ramos said the Palace should also convene the Legislative-Executive Development and Advisory Council (Ledac) to discuss the ongoing conflict and resolve it as a body.
"The President should convene the Ledac regularly, just like what I did during my term so that negotiations will be transparent to all concerned sectors,” Ramos said.
"Let's go back to the negotiating table and deal with the peace talks in a transparent way. After all, the Muslims are not the only group that belongs to the Bangsamoro people. And Mindanao is not only for them," he stressed.
In 2000, Estrada ordered government forces to go against the MILF after the rebel group seized the municipality of Kauswagan in Lanao del Norte Province triggering a four month-long battle that saw the military capturing most of the MILF camps including their main headquarters, Camp Abubakar, at the boundary of Matanog, Buldon, and Barira in Maguindanao Province.
But when Estrada was ousted in a military-backed popular uprising in January 2001, his successor, then Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, resumed talks with the MILF culminating in the aborted signing of the MOA-AD that would have paved the way for the creation of the BJE, an expanded version of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm) which can only be carried out by amending the Constitution.
The agreement provides for the inclusion of about 700 villages in the proposed BJE.
The MOA-AD would have expanded the Armm, subject to a law and voters' approval in a plebiscite. It would also have granted Muslims wider economic and political powers, including 75:25 sharing of wealth from exploitation of natural resources.
But the MOA signing was deferred after the Supreme Court (SC) issued a temporary restraining order based on the motion filed by local governments in the areas that will be included in the BJE led by the North Cotabato Provincial Government.
In recent days the ceasefire that was forged with the MILF has continued to hold despite sporadic violations, the latest of which involved attacks by MILF forces in North Cotabato and Lanao del Norte in the past days as a result of the aborted signing of the MOA. (AH/Sunnex)
