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Sunday, April 20, 2008
Dureza, Gonzales visit Malaysia for peace talks
By Ben O. Tesiorna
DAVAO CITY -- Presidential Assistant on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza and National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales went to Kuala Lumpur recently to discuss with Malaysian officials the stalled peace negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
In a related development, an envoy of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), monitoring the peace agreement between the Philippine government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), another Islamic grouping in the south, said both parties are making progress towards implementing the peace accord.
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Both Dureza and Gonzales, according to a report posted in the MILF website, www.luwaran.com, conveyed to the Malaysian government the latest proposal of the Philippine government that the MILF would agree to sign the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on ancestral domain without the strand on governance.
Dureza, however, in a text message did not confirm or deny the report.
Jun Mantawil, head of the MILF peace panel secretariat, out rightly dismissed the proposal as unacceptable to the MILF.
"We are not a bunch of fools who cannot see the devils in the proposal," he said, adding that MOA on ancestral domain cannot be completed without the strand on governance.
Mantawil warned that the dilly-dallying of the government is "taxing the patience of the MILF and annoying the good gesture of the Malaysian for facilitating the talks since 2001."
At the same time, some 3,000 businessmen in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm) had appealed to the European Union (EU) bloc to help convince the Philippine government and the MILF to resume the Mindanao peace process.
Armm Trade Secretary Ishak Mastura told the visiting EU ambassadors that with the government-MILF negotiation snagged again on the contentious issue over ancestral domain, the region's businessmen and their leaders are hard put in attracting new investments.
"We are happy with the interest of the European Union ambassadors and their concern for the peace and economic uplift of Armm. This is a shot in the arm for the autonomous government and the Armm populace," Mastura added.
France Ambassador Gerard Chesnel headed the EU diplomatic delegation that included EU Ambassador Alistair MacDonald, Austria Ambassador Herbert Jager, Belgium Ambassador Gregoire Vardakis, Finland Ambassador Ritta Resch, Netherlands Ambassador Robert G. Brinks, Romania Ambassador Valeriu Gheorghe, Spain Ambassador Luis Arias Romero, Sweden Ambassador Inger Ultvedt, and United Kingdom Ambassador Peter Beckingham.
Unlike the snag suffered by the MILF talks with the government, the MNLF accord, on the other hand, is making progress towards implementing a peace accord granting autonomy to Filipino Muslims in the south.
OIC envoy Sayed El-Masry told reporters there was "light at the end of the tunnel" for a peace accord signed in 1996 between the government and MNLF.
El-Masry said the OIC is now counting on the government and the MNLF to come up with proposals on amending the 1996 peace agreement, which ended decades of fighting and led to the creation of an autonomous region for Muslims, headed by MNLF officials, in the southern Philippines.
The MNLF has complained that the peace agreement was not fully implemented and that the autonomous region was not given enough power and are seeking amendments.
Critics, meanwhile, say the autonomous region has been mismanaged by the MNLF and that the group has been preoccupied with infighting rather than governing.
El-Masry, who had met with MNLF and government representatives during his visit here, said a joint working group would submit a report to the OIC in May on possible amendments for autonomy to be fully realized.
"Now they are just finalizing these documents. We hope that there will be a combined report," El-Masry said. (Sun.Star Davao/AP/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star General Santos. (April 20, 2008 issue)
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