Peace body to work in clusters

Invited to join council

The five leaders have invited 18 other peace advocates, educators, economists, religious leaders and lawyers to join the council.

They are Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas, Fr. Joel Tabora, Bishop Pablo David, Amina Rasul, lawyers Christian Monsod, Nasser Marohomsalic, and Marlon Manuel, Ateneo Law School dean Sedfrey Candelaria, University of the Philippines College of Law dean Danilo Concepcion, Prof. Moner Bajunaid, Pat Sarenas of the Mindanao Coalition of Development NGOs (Mincode), economist Cielito Habito, businessman John Perrine, Dr. Wilfrido Villacorta, Bishop Efraim Tendero, academic and diplomat Wilfrido Villacorta, Cagayan de Oro Archbishop Antonio Ledesma and businessman Ramon del Rosario.

“In the spirit of collegiality of peers, the conveners decided not to have a chair but to divide the work as needed,” the council said.

The four clusters will have “in-depth sessions” that will be concluded by April 18. The results of their study on the four topics will be presented in a plenary.

No need for EO

On Friday, Malacañang said there was no need for President Aquino to issue an executive order creating the peace council because it is not being funded by the government.

“Why would an EO be needed considering that they are not part of [the] government? They are a group of citizens [who] have responded to the invitation of the President. Again, they will be working off government premises. They do not have funding from [the] government. They have accepted the invitation on their own volition and they will work as they see fit,” deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said in a press briefing.

“We don’t know what their structure will be because [the] government does not dictate that. We do not know how they would go about their work… everything will be done separately and independently,” she added.

Valte emphasized that the council and its work would “not supplant Congress in any way.”

She said President Aquino invited the “private individuals” to form the council and having agreed to do so, their work is to “contribute to the national discussion on [the] BBL.”

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