A SECOND member of the government’s peace panel resigns effective February 8 due to secrecy policy of the ongoing talks between the government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
Mayor Celso Lobregat have expressed apprehensions over the manner the government pursues negotiations with the secessionist group. He said lawyer Tomas Cabili resigned effective Monday.
Lobregat said Cabili’s resignation validates his observations that the government and MILF are not undertaking genuine and honest to goodness consultations with the concerned stakeholders on issues concerning the peace talks.
“It seems that the lessons of MOA-AD (memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain) have not been learned. We called for genuine consultations and transparency in the negotiations,” Lobregat said.
In a letter addressed to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo dated February 8, 2010 and copy furnished to Lobregat, Cabili cited numerous policy matters to be affecting the peace process. The most glaring of which is the disparity between the panel chair’s policy of confidentiality/secrecy vis-à-vis his legal point of view that transparency is the way forward to a constitutionally valid peace agreement renders him futile to remain as member of the peace panel.
“I suffered in silence from being marginalized for adhering to my independent view and remaining true to the quest for genuine sustainable peace,” Cabili said in his two-page resignation letter.
“The true way forward to sustainable peace is through transparency which normally goes with sincerity (EO No. 3) in relation to the constitutional right of the people to be informed on matters of public concern and the 2008 ruling of the Supreme Court in cases filed against the GRP peace panel). It is best to openly engage in discussion and friendly debate prior to signing of an agreement and then implement it with due acceptance by a well informed public,” he added.
Cabili was the Christian representative in the peace panel, in lieu of Monsignor Jemar Vera Cruz, who declined the post when offered early last year.
“It disappoints me when I encounter people who are not transparent and honest. Perhaps, it is because I am accustomed to speak in a straightforward manner without any hidden agenda,” Cabili further stated in his resignation letter.
Shortly after last Christmas, Adelbert Antonino, who represented the local government units (LGUs) and the business sector also resigned from the government peace panel in view of similar observations following the supposed consultation in Zamboanga December 15 to 16.
Lobregat has strongly protested the manner the supposed consultation was done due to lack of preparations and sufficient notice to participants.
He also expressed dismay that even then panel member Antonino did not know about the supposed activity in the city.
Many times over, Lobregat has also expressed disgust over the policy on confidentiality espoused by the peace panels, stressing that genuine and meaningful public consultations to all concerned sectors would spell the success of the negotiations.
“It has also been the consistent view of the City and its residents that one of the crucial foundations for any peace process is that it should be based on true, genuine and meaningful public consultations not only with local government officials but also with the stakeholders and all sectors of the society, to include the indigenous cultural communities, religious leaders, academe, non-government organizations, the business communities, social and civic organizations, youth and the like,” Lobregat said. (Bong Garcia)