Aquino says he’s not giving up on peace process

MANILA, Philippines–President Aquino is not giving up on the peace process just yet.

“I will push. I will do everything I can. But at the end of the day, I am the servant of the people,” he said in an interview.

According to the President, the government would be announcing “other moves” this week.

“It’s like a direct support for pushing for peace,” he said.

On March 27, it will be exactly a year since the government and the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed a peace agreement, under which a wider autonomous region for the country’s Muslim minority would be created, expanding the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The agreement came after 17 years of negotiations spanning four administrations.

In his speech at the signing in Malacañang, Aquino had said: “If we sustain the momentum for peace, by 2016, the MILF will have shed its identity as a military force, and transformed itself into a political entity, casting its stake in democracy by vying for seats in the Bangsamoro elections.”

But after 44 commandos of the Special Action Force were killed in Mamasapano, Maguindanao last Jan. 27 by a combined Muslim rebel force of the MILF and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), public anger has virtually killed the chances of the Congress approving the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law, that would have fulfilled the provisions of the peace agreement.

Asked how he felt about the MILF, supposedly the government’s partner peace process, are now being portrayed as villains, Aquino said: “That emotion is to be expected. I was also disturbed that the dying commandos were shot, and we are working to identify these people and come up with the evidence that will stand up in court and convict all of them,” he said.

But Aquino said the MILF had been an effective peace partner.

“There [are] at least three [incidents] that come to mind right now [where they] really cooperated in our law enforcement effort against the BIFF and others. Literally, they [stepped] aside. They demonstrated it before when there was coordination,” he said.