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DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/09 March) -- The lack of consultations and sincerity of the panels put the peace process between the government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) at bay, according to the candidates in attendance at the presidential forum here yesterday.
In the Panaghisgot-hisgut, a 2010 Mindanao Presidential Forum, at the Ateneo de Davao University covered basketball court, presidential aspirants Gilbert Teodoro, Sen. Richard Gordon, Sen. Jamby Madrigal, Councilor John Carlo Delos Reyes, Nicanor Perlas and Eddie Villanueva gave a failing remark to the peace negotiations with the MILF. "It failed," said the presidential aspirants who was asked one by one of their assessment of the peace process.
Sen. Noynoy Aquino of Liberal Party, Sen. Manuel Villar of Nacionalista Party and Joseph Estrada of Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino were a no show at the forum which lasted for more than three hours.
Teodoro, former Defense Secretary who is the standard-bearer of the ruling Lakas-Kampi-CMD, said more consultations from the stakeholders are needed for the peace talks to work and finally deliver sustainable and lasting peace in the island.
"We have to conduct consultations not just in the affected areas but also in the places which are not affected so that these places would understand the situation and can work with their two senses to help," he said.
"It must be done as much as possible and as many people as possible," Teodoro, easily the crowd’s favorite as can be gleaned from audience reaction, said. On Feruary 27, some 200 community leaders, Christians, Muslims and tribal Bagobo and Mandaya from Davao City, Davao del Sur and Davao Oriental graced the peace advocacy cum consultation by the MILF Peace Negotiating Panel held at a school site in Sirawan Beach.
“This peace advocacy - consultation is for all because peace is for all and justice as an objective of a legitimate struggle and revolution can only be attained when people are well informed,” said MILF peace panel chair Mohagher Iqbal in its website as he delved on the updates of the peace process with the government.
"All of us must be part of the process," Gordon, the presidential bet of Bagumbayan Party, told the crowd of mostly students of Ateneo, members of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines and from various sectoral groups and non-Government Association.
He said there was no clear vision as to where Mindanao is going as far as the peace process is concerned.
"We have to work with sincerity to attain peace in Mindanao," said Gordon.
For her part, Madrigal, an independent candidate, said the Mindanao peace process was "mismanaged" by the Arroyo administration.
"We need to consult all sectors and have good faith in order for us to solve the problem of peace in Mindanao," Delos Reyes said.
On Sunday, the MILF reported on its website that except for Estrada, all the presidential aspirants for the May 10 presidential elections have no clear peace policy on how to solve the Moro questions and the armed conflict in Mindanao.
The MILF claimed that Estrada has declared in his campaign sorties that if elected he would launch an all-out war again against the MILF like what he did in 2000 where more than one million people were displaced from their homes.
According to the MILF website report, Teodoro has mixed signals from proposing to use brute force to peace talks while Gordon is more straight-forward in conducting peace talks with the MILF but has not provided more details.
Madrigal has so far not made specific reference to resuming talks with the MILF, the report added, while Villanueva is very general in his peace policy and both Perlas and delos Reyes are as non-committal as the rest of the aspirants.
Aquino merely said he would continue the peace talks with the MILF and Villar pushed for peace talks but reliance is to socio-economic measures as antidote to poverty, the report added.
“We want a very clear peace platform to resolve the Mindanao conflict, not just motherhood statement,” a lawyer-peace advocate in Cotabato City said.
Last week, the peace panel met at the Sheraton Hotel in Kuala Lumpur for a “Q and A” session on the seven-page extract of the 38-page draft comprehensive compact of the MILF and approved the application of two groups -- the Cotabato City-based Mindanao Human Rights Action Center (MinHRAC) and the Marawi City-based Muslim Organizaon Government Officials and Professionals (MOGOP) -- for inclusion in the Civilian Protection Component (CPC) of the International Monitoring Team.
Government peace panel chair Rafael Sequis told MindaNews by phone that “everything went very well.” in the "Q and A" session but Iqbal, the MILF peace panel chair, described the session as “blunt,frank, and tiring.” (Rico Biliran/MindaNews) |
