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Thursday, September 04, 2008
Arroyo wants review of peace initiatives
By Ben O. Tesiorna
DAVAO CITY -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Wednesday ordered a "thorough" review of all existing peace initiatives of the government after disbanding the peace panel engaged in negotiating talks with Moro rebels.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the President directed Presidential Adviser on Peace Process Secretary Hermogenes Esperon Jr. to carry out the review of the peace initiatives.
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These include the peace negotiations with the communist group, the implementation of the 1996 peace agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), the government-RPM-ABB agreement, and the 1996 government-CPLA (Cordillera Peoples' Liberation Army) agreement.
"Results of such review will be the bases of an enhanced and new roadmap on the peace process to be submitted to the President, through the executive secretary, for consideration and approval," Ermita said.
Although Arroyo disbanded Wednesday the government's peace panel negotiating with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Ermita said the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team (IMT) will stay in place.
The peacekeepers, he added, will await the developments while the government reconstitutes another peace panel that will be composed of members recommended by the stakeholders "so that the clamor for involvement of stakeholders will be answered adequately."
According to him, Esperon and National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales will go on official mission to Kuala Lumpur to officially inform the Malaysian government of the development "and also explain that the peace process continues to be on."
He said the Malaysian government must be informed that all the mechanisms within the peace process remain in place, that the ceasefire will be maintained, and that police and military operations during Ramadan are directed only against the "lawless" MILF groups of commanders Umbra Kato, Abdullah Saber Macapaar, and Aleem Sulaiman Pangalian.
Dissolution
President Arroyo announced the dissolution of the peace panel headed by retired general Rodolfo Garcia during a meeting Wednesday with Mindanao congressmen in Malacañang after the legal issues hounding the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) mired the peace negotiation.
Arroyo said that widespread fighting, which has killed scores of government soldiers, rebels, and civilians in Mindanao since last month, should stop before the talks with the 11,000-strong MILF can resume.
"We must bring stability to the region and regain order before we can effectively reactivate the peace process in earnest," Arroyo said in a speech at a Manila job fair for young Muslims Wednesday.
She reiterated that her government will no longer sign the accord on the expanded autonomous region due to the rebel attacks on civilian communities and she warned rebels from returning to violence.
"Let me take this opportunity to be very clear to those elements who seek disruption and destruction," Arroyo said. "No peace agreement can or will be reached through intimidation or the barrel of a gun."
She also reiterated her call for a more comprehensive dialogue with Mindanao stakeholders and thanked Malaysia for its role in the peace process.
"We would like to continue to convey our gratitude to Malaysia, the peace process must proceed but only after we have expanded the number of stakeholders for consultation," she said.
The government's peace panel dissolution came after the MILF maintained its position not to surrender its rogue commanders Kato, Macapaar, and Pangalian who led civilian attacks in Lanao del Norte and North Cotabato after the Supreme Court stopped the signing of the MOA-AD.
New panel
Press Secretary Jesus G. Dureza said the termination of the government's peace panel will pave the way for a fresh start to the peace process for Mindanao.
Dureza said that Arroyo and her key aides stressed that the government was not permanently abandoning the idea of peace talks. Instead, they will seek a new approach that involves wider consultations with affected communities and a promise by the rebels to disarm.
On Wednesday, Ermita said the disbanded government panel will be reconstituted depending on several factors, including the selection of new negotiators to be nominated by communities and groups affected by the decades-long bloody rebellion.
Earlier, House Speaker Prospero Nograles suggested some names of senior Mindanao leaders who could possibly compose the new set of negotiators for the government.
Nograles identified the senior Mindanaoan leaders as former vice president and Senator Teofisto Guingona, Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Senator Rodolfo Biazon, Maguindanao Representative Simeon Datumanong, Sultan Kudarat Representative Pax Mangudadatu, and Representative Nur Jaafar.
The Speaker said that he included Biazon in the list, though not a Mindanaoan, as he was assigned in Mindanao as a soldier and that his experience can be of big help.
"They are all respected Mindanao leaders whose wisdom we should seek. We have to collectively find ways to promote cultural and religious harmony among Filipinos. We have to seek counsel from both our Muslim and Christian brothers, the military and other sectors directly affected by the Mindanao crisis," Nograles said.
Optimistic
For Senate President Manuel Villar Jr., the decision to dissolve the government peace panel is a step in the right direction.
He said the government needs a fresh start and new terms of reference in the effort to strike a peace deal with the rebel group.
However, Villar said someone should be made accountable for the turnout of the peace deal that caused the escalation of atrocities in some parts of Mindanao and the death and displacement of innocent civilians.
"I trust that the government learned a lot from the scrapped MOA-AD, with emphasis on the need for utmost transparency and extensive consultations with all stakeholders in each and every peace negotiation the government will take part in," Villar said.
Rebel vice chairman Ghazali Jaafar meantime said Arroyo can disband the panel anytime. But "what is important is (that) there has been no pronouncement that the peace talks have been cut off," he said.
Jaafar, however, wondered how both sides would deal with an emergency without a government panel authorized to deal with the rebels.
Malaysian Ambassador Ahmad Rashidi, for his part, said his government would continue to broker peace talks. "We have to be optimistic. The target is still peace," he told reporters in Manila. (WV/JMR/BOT/AP/Sun.Star Davao/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Iloilo. (September 4, 2008 issue)
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