KIDAPAWAN CITY—Mindanao leaders, including some who opposed the ill-fated memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain (MOA-AD), welcomed President Benigno Aquino III’s move to fast-track the peace process by meeting secretly with the leader of the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
North Cotabao Governor Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza said Mr. Aquino’s decision to meet with MILF chair Murad Ebrahim in Tokyo on Thursday showed he was serious about resolving the decades-old Muslim insurgency.
Mendoza, whose province is among those where violence between the MILF rebels and government occurs on a regular basis, said she was optimistic that Mr. Aquino would find a solution to the Moro problem “anchored on matuwid na daan” (the straight path), not on pressure or political accommodation.”
She also praised the government for being transparent about the meeting, noting that the Aquino administration may have learned a lesson from the bloody consequences of the MOA-AD.
In 2008, the Arroyo administration tried to resolve the conflict with the MILF through the MOA-AD that provided for a Bangsamoro homeland. But Christian leaders in Mindanao and the majority of lawmakers vehemently opposed it, particularly because they were not consulted beforehand. The MOA-AD was junked by the Supreme Court, triggering bloody attacks on Christian communities in Central Mindanao by MILF rebels.
Former North Cotabato Governor Emmanuel Piñol, who has been at the forefront of a campaign against the creation of a separate Muslim territory, did not feel that the President had betrayed the Christian population of Mindanao by meeting with Murad.
Correct attitude
Though the President may have violated diplomatic protocols by talking directly to a rebel leader who has not yet signed a peace deal with the government, he said Mr. Aquino showed his commitment to “bring the conflict in the South, which has stunted the growth of the region and caused untold miseries to the people, to a peaceful end.”
“I am comfortable with this President knowing where he comes from prior to his ascendancy to the highest position in the land and certain of his noble intentions for the Filipino people,” he said.
Piñol said the meeting showed how simply Aquino regarded the peace process with the MILF.
“If there is any display of naïveté, this was the best example. It is just like telling the MILF chairman: ‘Brod, Brod, come here. Let’s talk sincerely. What is it really that you want?’” Piñol said.
He said this was the “correct attitude” in addressing the Mindanao problem.
“Those involved in the conflict must sit down as Filipinos and come up with a solution to a local problem,” he said.
In Zamboanga City, Mayor Celso Lobregat said he was also “surprised” but was hopeful it would cause the peace talks to continue successfully.
Lobregat urged the government to continue to be transparent on the talks.
“We are all for peace, we are in search of a lasting peace and the government must consider the sentiments of the people,” he said.
Rogue commander
In Maguindanao, Ombra Kato, one of MILF’s so-called “rogue” commanders who led the attacks in Central Mindanao after the rejection of the MOA-AD, said he hoped the meeting would really spell good news for Muslims.
“I hope it was for the best interest of the Bangsamoro, the kind of interest originally espoused by our (MILF) founding chair (Salamat Hashim),” Kato said.
But Kato admitted to having misgivings about the meeting.
“I doubt if the meeting would end with future signed agreement acceptable to all inhabitants,” he said as the peace process was “nothing but a political trash.”
In Cotabato City, Vice Mayor Muslimin Sema, who chairs a faction of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), the main Muslim insurgency which signed a peace deal with the government in 1996, said the meeting was “a welcome and positive action on both sides.”
He said the MNLF hopes that whatever understanding or agreement would result would be implemented “to the letter and spirit” unlike the 1996 peace treaty with the MNLF.
The MNLF has been asking the government to let it govern in basically the same territory that the MILF is claiming, saying it was defined by the 1996 peace treaty.
More than speeches
Peace advocates in Davao City said the meeting was “a big boost to the peace efforts in Mindanao.”
“Clearly the peace panels will resume with the formal peace negotiations with a renewed confidence. The President’s move was a grand gesture of peace and sincerity and political will to strike a peace settlement,” said Mary Ann Arnado, secretary general of Mindanao Peoples Caucus.
“The meeting speaks more than a thousand speeches. What he failed to mention in his state of the nation address, he has definitely expressed a hundredfold by talking to Murad. The gesture is worth more than a thousand words,” said Arnado.
Basilan Bishop Martin Jumaod on Saturday urged the Aquino administration not to enter into “secret deals” with the MILF.
“When leaders come to the table and discuss issues, these gestures are good signs. However, there should be no commitments and secret deals particularly when it comes to favoring one group,” Jumaod said, noting what happened with the MOA-AD.
Carlos Isagani Zarate, secretary general of the Union of People’s Lawyers in Mindanao, asked why Mr. Aquino could not extend the same gesture to the communist insurgency.
“If he cannot extend the same gesture to the other half of the peace process coin, then his meeting with chair Murad can be interpreted as just a ploy, part of the strategy to coopt the MILF, neutralize it so that the government can concentrate on its plan of defeating the NDF forces,” Zarate said.
Political masterstroke
In Congress, Mr. Aquino’s move to meet with the MILF leader was hailed as “a political masterstroke” by Eastern Samar Representative Ben Evardone.
He said the President’s gesture was “definitely the most concrete and sincere confidence-building move of the Aquino administration,” adding that the ball was now in the MILF’s court to reciprocate.
Evardone said both sides should follow through on this goodwill by resuming the talks and ironing out the remaining kinks in the negotiations.
“I will not be surprised also if P-Noy (Aquino) will also initiate bold and dramatic moves in dealing with other armed groups to attain peace and development,” Evardone said.
Senator Loren Legarda, chair of the Senate foreign relations committee, said the high-level meeting “has planted the trust and good faith so necessary for the peace process to prosper.”
She described as a “major milestone” in the peace process the MILF’s reported decision to drop its demand to establish a separate territory.
Explain rush to Japan
Legarda said she failed to immediately comment on Mr. Aquino’s top-secret meeting held in a Tokyo hotel, owing to a previous engagement. She said the meeting “can only augur well for the early conclusion of the peace process.”
House Minority Leader and Albay Representative Edcel C. Lagman, who earlier questioned the necessity of Mr. Aquino having to meet Murad personally, urged the President to make a public disclosure of the highlights of his secret meeting with Murad.
“The people are entitled to know in the spirit of transparency what happened during the furtive talks,” Lagman said.
He said the people must know the real reason why the President rushed to Japan to meet Murad by discussing the parameters for the impending peace talks, the bottom line demands of the MILF and if the government was ready to offer certain concessions.
Specifically, Lagman wanted answers on the following questions: how the rival MNLF would be treated and/or accommodated in the peace talks; what legislation are necessary to enhance the successful implementation of any peace accord; how much is the budgetary requirement for the conduct of the negotiations and enforcement of any peaceful settlement; how would the existing Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao fit into the negotiation and eventual agreement.
Lagman also wanted to know what kind of special status the President conferred on the Muslim rebel leader and his insurgency.
The militant Bayan Muna party-list Representative Teddy Casiño said he welcomed the meeting and hoped that Mr. Aquino could also apply the same “zeal and innovative approach” to the talks with the communist National Democratic Front.
‘Errant’ diplomat
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Saturday disowned the statement of an unnamed diplomat who said that Mr. Aquino’s meeting with Murad was “an act of treason.”
In a statement, the DFA said it was “fully behind” the President’s efforts to fast-track the resolution of the long-running conflict in Mindanao and that it would investigate the “errant” diplomat. Reports from Carlo Agamon, Williamor Magbanua, Charlie Señase, Edwin Fernandez, Jeffrey Tupas, Julie Alipala and Nash Maulana, Inquirer Mindanao; with Cynthia Balana, Christian Esguerra and Philip C. Tubeza in Manila
First posted 11:34 pm | Saturday, August 6th, 2011