The Office of the Press Secretary (OPS) reported that Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita told Malacanang reporters  that Seguis’ designation, “together with other members of the new GRP panel,” was already signed by the President. When she signed it, the report did not say.

Only the name of  Seguis, currently Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Special Concerns, has been divulged. The peace panel is usually composed of a chair and four members.

This is the third time in the history of the peace talks with the Bangsamoro that a diplomat sits as chair, but the first for a career diplomat in active service.

The first diplomat-chair was Philippine Ambassador to the United States Emmanuel Pelaez, a Mindanawon who once served as Vice President and Senator, who chaired the peace panel negotiating with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in 1987, under the Aquino administration.  The second was former Ambassador Manuel Yan, a retired general who served as peace panel chair in the negotiations with the MNLF under the Ramos administration, from 1992 to 1996. Yan became the first Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process.

Seguis attended the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers (ICFM)  of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in 2000, as guest, and was also a member of the Philippine government panel in the Tripartite Review meeting on the implementation of the 1996 GRP-MNLF peace pact, with the OIC and the MNLF in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in November 2007.

Seguis, who has served as Philippine Ambassador to Indonesia,  East Timor,  Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Yemen,  Iraq and to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is “very qualified  to the job,” Ermita told reporters during the Christmas party with members of the Malacanang Press Corps at the Palace Heroes Hall.

“And the President has thought of tapping him in this important role. I  would say that  probably  90 percent  of the meeting of the Islamic conference of foreign ministers have been attended by Undersecretary Seguis,” he added.

Ermita said the other panel members “are still being validated.  Hopefully by next week, we could have the full panel to resume talks with MILF.”

But a day before Malacanang’s announcement of a new chair, Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel, a Mindanawon, welcomed Seguis in a press statement.

Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Hermogenes Esperon, Jr., earlier Sunday  afternoon told MindaNews he needed another week of consultation to complete the panel composition. Asked late Sunday about Pimentel’s congratulating Seguis as new chair, Esperon replied, “kandidato si  USec Seguis” (Seguis is a candidate). 

National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales announced Saturday afternoon before a conference of Mindanao’s young leaders that Esperon would announce “in a day or two” the  members of the new peace panel.

Esperon confirmed to MindaNews Sunday that that was the original schedule but added he needed another week.

On Monday evening, he told MindaNews the composition of  “panel members (would be done) within two weeks.”  But Ermita told Malacanang reporters the full panel may be had “hopefully by next week.”

The OPS  report said Ermita explained that peace panel had not been fully reconstituted because they “still have to sit back from the people who have been in  consultation  with the stakeholders.”

But in an article posted in the MILF website on November 29, two days before Malacanang announced Seguis’ appointment, MILF peace panel chair Mohahger Iqbal was reported as having explained that  “the GRP said the best that it can do at present is to appoint an acting chairman, but not the full panel, which is not enough to transact official business.”

Resuming the peace talks and reactivating the mechanisms such as the International Monitoring Team (IMT) whose mandate ended November 30 and the Ad Hoc Joint Action Group which goes after criminal elements in the so-called “MILF areas” and whose mandate expired on November 16, requires a panel-to-panel negotiation.

Ermita, according to the OPS report, said the MILF welcomed the appointment of Seguis who has long served in the foreign service since the Marcos regime.

“We are glad to hear from our contacts that the MILF is glad and satisfied with the choice of the President  of Seguis as the new chairman of the GRP panel,” he  said.

MILF peace panel chair Iqbal told MindaNews Tuesday morning that the naming of a new panel chair is “not a big happening.”

“GRP (Government of the Republic of the Philippines  is just repairing what it had damaged, including disbandment of panel,” he told MindaNews.

Malacanang dissolved its peace panel with the MILF on September 3, following the controversy over the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain.

Prof. Abhoud Syed Linnga, executive director of the Cotabato City-based Institute of Bangsamoro Studies,  said whoever heads the government’s negotiating panel is “secondary in importance.”

“The fundamental issue is whether the new GRP panel represents the GRP as a whole or just the executive. Does the new panel represent the Filipino people in the negotiations?” Lingga asked, adding the success of the peace talks “will depend more on how creative the new GRP panel will be.” (Carolyn O. Arguillas/MindaNews)

---

Share this story through the following Social Media sites: