FORMER Davao City Councilor now incumbent barangay chair of Matina Crossing in Davao City, lawyer Angela Librado-Trinidad joins the Government of the Philippines peace panel for the GPH-Communist of the Philippines/New People’s Army/National Democratic Front negotiations.
Librado-Trinidad was sworn in along with other GPH peace panel members Hernany Braganza, lawyer Rene Sarmiento, and lawyer Noel Felongco by President Rodrigo Duterte after the president accepted the comprehensive peace roadmap that seeks to bring about peace and development in the country during a closed door meeting late Monday afternoon in Malacañang.
Librado-Trinidad, a long ally of Duterte in Davao politics, had been running and winning as a candidate of the militant Gabriela. But after three terms, she ran for barangay captain instead. She was an militant leader in her youth as was editor-in-chief of the college publication of Ateneo de Davao University, being the daughter of the now deceased Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) leader Erasto “Nonoy” Librado.
In the same meeting, Duterte approved en toto or in its entirety the peace formula presented by Presidential Adviser on Peace Process Jesus Dureza, which will address the Bangsamoro issue, the impending resumption of peace negotiations with the Communist Party of the Philippines/New People’s Army/National Democratic Front (CPP/NPA/NDF), and the implementation of closure agreements with other rebel groups in the country.
At the same time, the President adopted Dureza's proposed strategy of implementing massive development on the ground simultaneously with the work to implement agreements that government had entered into.
"I can sign a hundred peace agreements but if those on the ground do not immediately feel the dividends of peace, those agreements will not be sustainable," Dureza said in his presentation.
Duterte directed that the executive order of the peace office be amended to enable it to oversee all development projects and at the same time empower it to implement projects that are related to peace.
On the Bangsamoro, Duterte declared that we are now already on the “implementation stage as the time for negotiations are over".
The roadmap now entails the operationalization of a mechanism where an all-Moro body will be tasked to draft anew a more inclusive proposed enabling law that will be filed with Congress in lieu of the so-called Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) that was not passed by the previous Congress when it adjourned.
The peace strategy envisions the consolidation and/or convergence of the various peace agreements already entered into like the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s Comprehensive Agreement of the Bangsamoro (CAB) and the Moro National Liberation Front's 1996 Final Peace Agreement (FPA), including relevant provisions of the Republic Act No. 9054 (or the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao Law) and the Indigenous People's Rights Act (Ipra).
The Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) provided for in the CAB will be reconstituted with representation coming from the MILF, MNLF, the Armm, and other Bangsamoro representatives. Work on the new proposed Bangsamoro enabling law will be done simultaneous with the moves to shift to a federal set-up, the latter expected to come later under the planned time line.
The reconstituted and inclusive BTC will also be mandated to propose amendments to the Philippine Constitution that are pertinent to the Bangsamoro as inputs towards eventual federalism in the land.