GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/21 March) -- Addressing MILF panel chair Mohagher Iqbal, GRP panel chair Rafael Seguis said at their March 4 meeting, “The GRP Panel’s sincerity is never diminished by the limited time we are given. … We remain committed to understanding whatever you have to say, inasmuch as we hope the MILF Panel would be committed to understand our ideas as well.” (MindaNews, March 4, 2010)

What is Seguis saying? With mutual understanding, a GRP-MILF peace agreement is doable within the limited time until June 30, 2010. The first doability issue concerns forging and signing an agreement; the second concerns implementation.

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/20 March) -- A comparison of the two Drafts in reference to the seven-item guideline will show vital differences.  The more these will stand out upon looking closely into the Articles.

At the Outset

The vital differences begin with the Draft titles: The emphasis of the GRP Draft is Peace; that of the MILF Draft is Interim Government.

The preambles of the Drafts also present vital differences that readily show the GRP and MILF heading to opposite directions. 

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/19 March) -- In his letter to the Malaysian facilitator, read before the International Contact Group  last January 28 to explain why they skipped the second session day of their 17^th meeting, MILF panel chair Mohagher Iqbal said, “… the GRP draft has not conformed to the basic agreed principles in the Joint Statement for the resumption of negotiation dated 29 July 2009.”  He saw no point in attending the session.

For one who promised  “all out peace” in contrast to her predecessor’s “all out war,” and who in her 2005 State of the Nation Address bragged “permanent peace in Mindanao is within reach,”  Ms Arroyo has become the only post-Marcos era President with at least two major wars fought against the MILF: in 2003 and 2008 – both avoidable wars, coming as they did, in the midst of peace talks.

1^st of five parts

(The series is an analysis of the draft peace pacts exchanged between the government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front  peace panels on January 27, 2010 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  The MILF did not show up for discussion the next day claiming the GRP [Government of the Republic of the Philippines] presented nothing new, that it offered “enhanced autonomy” again, an offer rejected in 2000 and 2003.

The two panels met again on March 4 in Kuala Lumpur for a Q and A session on the MILF’s draft Declaration of Principles on Interim Governance Arrangements, an 11-page extract from its proposed Comprehensive Compact. The GRP peace panel vowed to submit its counter-proposal but as of March 18, panel chair Rafael Seguis told MindaNews he has not submitted it because “I have to clear with the National Security Cabinet Group.”