‘Failure not an option: There’s no Plan B’

Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Deles: No Plan B. AP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Failure is not an option for the government in implementing the peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), according to President Aquino’s peace adviser.

“There’s no Plan B. We can do it,” Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Deles told reporters on Tuesday night.

Deles stressed that it was President Aquino himself who “shaped” the peace initiative with the MILF when he assumed office in 2010.

In his instructions to the government peace panel, Deles said, Aquino outlined the kind of peace agreement with the MILF that he wanted: It should be constitutional; it should have learned lessons from the past; everything should be deliverable; and it should be inclusive and transparent.

All that because if a peace deal is clinched, it will happen during Aquino’s presidency, Deles said.

“He wanted something he could deliver,” she added.

Deles was also confident that Congress would pass the Bangsamoro basic law that would be written by the Transition Commission and would be certified urgent by the President.

Asked if the abolition of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), a pork barrel that channels funds to congressional districts, would not affect the legislators’ decision on the proposed Bangsamoro law, Deles said: “There can be matters where people will rise above themselves. Definitely, the people in Congress will tell us that (President Aquino) still has high political stock.”

“We didn’t go through all of this if the President did not, was not that committed [to this agreement’s] implementation,” Deles said.

The proposed Bangsamoro basic law would establish a more powerful, better-funded and potentially bigger Muslim autonomous region in Mindanao.

To be called Bangsamoro, it would replace the current Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

Although congressional leaders have pledged support for the administration’s peace efforts, President Aquino expects dissenters when he hands the Bangsamoro bill to Congress.

Charter change

Speaking to reporters in Alabang, Muntinlupa City, on Wednesday, Aquino denied that the Bangsamoro bill was a pretext for amending the Constitution.

“Perhaps we should appeal (to the lawmakers that they) should not be too apprehensive,” Aquino said, referring to legislators who still do not have “complete information” about the peace process with the MILF but have what he called “fear of the unknown.”

The President explained that from the start, the “framework” of the peace process between his administration and the MILF has been the Constitution.

He said he instructed the government negotiators to make the talks transparent, including concessions discussed in closed-door sessions, “so that there won’t be surprises.”

Government and MILF negotiators agreed on the fourth and last deal for a final peace agreement in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Jan. 25, with the MILF signing on to the deactivation of its 11,000-strong fighting force in exchange for an autonomous Bangsamoro region in Mindanao.

Last year, both sides signed agreements on power-sharing, wealth-sharing and transitional arrangements.

The four annexes to the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro will be the basis for a final peace accord between the government and the MILF that they hope to sign in a few weeks.

‘Baseless insinuations’

Mr. Aquino denied that amending the Constitution is a condition for the final peace agreement.

Referring to a lawmaker’s talking about a provision in the framework agreement on a possible need for constitutional amendments, Mr. Aquino said the provision did not mean the government had committed to introduce changes to the Constitution.

The President appealed to critics to wait for the draft of the Bangsamoro basic law that would be written by the 15-member Transition Commission before making conclusions.

He dismissed “insinuations that this is not in accordance with the Constitution” as “baseless.”

Mindanao plebiscite

Aquino did not answer directly when asked if he expected the Bangsamoro basic law to be approved in a plebiscite in Mindanao, saying instead that he expected many to oppose the proposal “because of the many benefits that will be given to Bangsamoro.”

He was referring to the wealth-sharing agreement, which would give to the Bangsamoro government the larger share of revenues from taxes and natural resources, except for income from fossil fuels, which the government and Bangsamoro would split equally between themselves.

Explaining those concessions, Mr. Aquino said the

ARMM had been neglected for so long.

“Now we want to be fair … to every Filipino. Those who have been left behind [in development] should perhaps be given [more] so that they could catch up with the other [regions],” Mr. Aquino said.

MILF serious, too

Government chief negotiator Miriam Coronel-Ferrer said the MILF was also “serious about ending the war honorably and with their principles intact.”

“They have already done that shift from advocating armed struggle to really pushing for what can be achieved through peaceful means [and] that was already a big step that facilitated the success of the negotiations,” Ferrer said.

What if Congress decides to write its own law?

“I think we stand a really good chance of passing a law that captures the spirit and the intentions of the annexes and the comprehensive framework agreement. There is a wide public support to find a really good political settlement to the conflict and to that extent, our politicians will also listen to the sentiments of the people,” Ferrer said.

Support from business

Businessmen on Wednesday urged the enactment of the Bangsamoro basic law.

In a statement, the Makati Business Club pledged to support the final phase of the peace process and to help harness the economic potentials of the future Bangsamoro autonomous region.—With a report from Amy R. Remo

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