‘Normalization’ work starts for gov’t, MILF peace panels

Presidential Peace Adviser Teresita Quintos-Deles

The Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) on Tuesday said that an adhoc interagency team that will work on the “normalization” provision of the framework peace agreement with the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) began its work last Monday.

According to Teresita Quintos-Deles, the presidential adviser on the peace process, 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.”

Those who attended the initial meeting on Monday were Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, Rear Admiral Miguel Jose Rodriguez of the Armed Forces’ Civil Military Operations, Chito Gascon, undersecretary for political affairs,  Mujiv Hataman, governor-in-charge of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), and representatives 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 succeeding rounds of negotiations with the MILF.

The other three are the annexes on power sharing, wealth sharing, and transitional arrangements and modalities. The OPAPP said three of the four annexes are expected to be completed by the end of the year.

Deles was set to leave yesterday at the head of a 20-member delegation for Navarra, Spain to learn about governance mechanisms in the Chartered Community of Navarra, an autonomous community of northern Spain. They will be studying Navarra’s local autonomous police force called Policia Foral, the OPAPP said.