MANILA, Philippines—Press Secretary Jesus Dureza said the government now intended to “refocus” the peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on the issues of “disarmament, demobilization and rehabilitation” after it set aside the contentious proposed Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on ancestral domain with the secessionist Muslim group.

Dureza confirmed Solicitor General Agnes Devanadera’s statements at the Supreme Court yesterday that Malacañang would no longer sign the MOA whatever the high court decides on the petitions against the MOA.

He said the government was setting aside the MOA and that “no matter what the Supreme Court will ultimately decide, the government will not sign the MOA.”

He also confirmed Devanadera’s statement that the government peace panel was authorized only to negotiate the MOA and not to sign it.

Dureza said that when the two sides resume peace talks what would be included on the table were President Macapagal-Arroyo’s announcement this week that the government would now want the MILF to lay down their arms and that “disarmament, demobilization and rehabilitation” would be included in the peace agreement.

Arroyo instructions ‘not followed’

The President met Thursday with the Cabinet security cluster to “review the whole situation” of the MOA and the MILF attacks in Central Mindanao.

A source said that the President had given the government peace panel instructions “which were not followed” regarding the negotiations and the “contents of the MOA.”

“There were issues, procedures that were not followed,” the source said, noting that the President had mentioned this again during the meeting on Thursday and that she was “quite agitated.”

Asked whether the presidential instructions that were not followed had to do with the major items that Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita earlier told reporters that needed to be reviewed in the MOA by the government and the MILF.

Terms not agreeable to MILF

Ermita last week said that among the items that needed to be reviewed were the language used in the MOA as he noted that the government peace panel “avoided using terms that are not agreeable so much to the other panel (MILF) such as the reference to the Constitution and enabling law, the use of the term national government as central government.”

The source said the government peace panel may not have heeded the President’s instructions “in good faith.”

Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Sergio Apostol said the government peace panel was “given authority to negotiate but not full authority to sign.”

Apostol said the document was invalid because the panel “had no authority to sign.”

But he said the panel was not liable for anything because in the first place no signing of the MOA took place.

‘Ad-hoc-cracy’

Asked why Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo was in Malaysia earlier this month to witness the signing of the MOA, Apostol said: “Maybe he was just there to satisfy his curiosity.”

The government’s declaration that it was “setting aside” the MOA drew dismayed reactions from opposition senators.

Sen. Manuel Roxas, one of the petitioners asking the Supreme Court to junk the MOA, said, “That is an irresponsible ad-hoc-cracy on such an important matter that affects the integrity of the republic and has caused about 100 deaths, countless casualties and nearly 200,000 evacuees.”

He said it was not enough for the government to declare the MOA as having been set aside, the high court should still rule on the MOA’s constitutionality so that “it can never be used against the republic.”

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said the declaration was “an admission that they (the government) took the Moros for a ride.”

This turnaround showed that the administration “has no strategic planning [and] has no think-tank it can rely on to advance the national interest.”

Flip-flopping

Given the changing and conflicting positions of the administration on the agreement in the past few weeks, Sen. Francis Escudero asked: “Is that their final answer?”

He said in a text message that the “flip-flopping” of the government on the agreement “is what caused the war to break out in Mindanao.”

Roxas said the government position was “insufficient to protect the country because it is unilateral in nature. Thus, it can be revived in the future.”

He explained that if the MOA would not be declared unconstitutional, the MILF can use it as a reference point in future peace talks as well as a political document in international forums to condemn the country as reneging on its word.

Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano said that while the government’s junking of the MOA will “calm some nerves, what people want is a categorical statement from the government on how far they are willing to go with the MILF [and] how it will finally stop the new cycle of violence with new dominant armed groups.”

‘Hidden agenda’

He warned, without elaborating, that some “hidden agenda are still at play” in the decision of the government to junk the MOA.

In a statement, Sen. Loren Legarda said the government must admit its mistake on the MOA.

“The government stands to repeat the same mistake in the future if it will not admit its fault in this MOA, and this is dangerous because it might enter into another agreement without our knowledge,” Legarda said.