Sec. Teresita Deles. INQUIRER file photo
MANILA, Philippines–The Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process on Tuesday said that an ad hoc interagency team on the “normalization” provision within the framework agreement recently signed by the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation began its work Monday.
Secretary Teresita Quintos-Deles, presidential adviser on the peace process, in a statement said “the meeting was convened to thresh out the need to harmonize agency capabilities and the framework agreement’s provision on normalization.”
Deles said Section 8, Article 1 of the Framework Agreement defined normalization as the state when “communities can return to conditions where they can achieve their desired quality of life, which includes the pursuit of sustainable livelihoods and political participation within a peaceful deliberative society.”
Present at Monday’s meeting were Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, Rear Admiral Miguel Jose Rodriguez of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Civil Military Operations, Political Affairs Undersecretary Chito Gascon, and acting governor Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, as well as officials from other line agencies and government offices.
The annex on normalization is one of the four annexes that will comprise the Comprehensive Agreement, which will be discussed in the next rounds negotiations with the MILF.
The other three are the annexes on power sharing, wealth sharing, and transitional arrangements and modalities. The OPAPP said that three of the four annexes are expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Deles and other members of the peace panel were also scheduled to leave late Tuesday for Navarra, Spain to learn about governance mechanisms in the “chartered community” of Navarra which will include a study on its local autonomous police force called Policia Foral, the OPAPP said.
Also in the delegation are Budget Secretary Butch Abad, GPH peace panel chair for talks with the MILF Marvic Leonen; panel members Prof. Miriam Coronel Ferrer, Dr. Hamid Barra, former Agriculture Secretary Senen Bacani, Undersecretary Yasmin Busran Lao and Upi, Maguindanao Mayor Ramon Piang.
Also joining are Hataman, the five ARMM provincial governors and representatives from the Senate, Congress, Department of Interior and Local Government and the Philippine Army.
Leonen will leave for Spain Thursday.
“The GPH delegation hopes to gain insights on how Navarra’s police work in an autonomous setup, by which said insights can be useful in the implementation of Article 8,” the OPAPP said in a statement.
The delegation will return to Manila on Nov. 2.
The MILF panel went on a similar study in Catalan last March, the OPAPP added.