GOVT-MILF PEACE EFFORT--Aquino: Spoilers out to derail plan

From the Manila Standard Today (Feb 11): GOVT-MILF PEACE EFFORT
Aquino: Spoilers out to derail plan

President Benigno Aquino III on Monday warned the “spoilers” who will try to derail the peace process between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front—even as he said the signing of a peace deal with the group will take place next month.

He made the warning following the launching of the Sajahatra Bangsamoro socio-economic program in Sultan Kudarat which, he said, would soon allow Mindanao to fulfill its potential as a land of promise.

He launched the program at the Bangsamoro Leadership and Management Institute following a historic and first visit by a Philippine president to the MILF’s main camp in an attempt to further peace and end several decades of conflict there.

Mr. Aquino and MILF chairman Murad Ebrahim led the event at the institute, where government troops and members of the MILF-Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces worked together on Sunday to secure it for the President’s visit.

“The most important point is this: we have reached an understanding because the people in the MILF central leadership are just like me who prioritize the needs of others,” Mr. Aquino said.

“With this in mind, how can we be stopped from fulfilling the vision of Mindanao as a promised land?”

But the President warned that, just like Heartbreak Hill in the United States—the last stretch of the Boston Marathon where most runners falter—the peace process with the MILF could suffer the same fate unless all stakeholders worked together.

“We are now at this crucial juncture. We have journeyed long and hard to reach this point of understanding and cooperation,” he said.

“But we know there are also people who profit out of conflict and who want to return to the old ways.”

Murad said big-ticket investments would soon be launched in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao once a final peace agreement had been signed with the government.

MILF vice chairman for political affairs Ghadzali Jaafar said that while former President Joseph Estrada was the first chief executive to visit their territory, the visit was intended to insult the Bangsamoro people.

“Former President Estrada brought with him a truck of alcoholic beverages and lechon [roast pig] and ate inside a mosque,” Jaafar said.

“But President Aquino came bringing socio-economic services to the Bangsamoro people.”

According to presidential peace adviser Teresita Deles, the government does not want the MILF to wait until 2016 to feel the impact of the peace agreement that is being finalized by both sides and is expected to be signed next month.

Deles said the peace panels of the government and the MILF were working double time to meet their mutually agreed target of signing a comprehensive peace agreement.
She said the annexes on power-sharing, wealth-sharing and transitional arrangements would likely be completed within the month.

The annex on normalization, however, will likely take up to March after which a final peace deal can be forged.

“There are difficult issues, but no issue is insurmountable,” government chief negotiator Miriam Ferrer said.

Mr. Aquino said the administration’s goal was to “accelerate the transition of the MILF communities steeped in armed struggle to a productive citizenry that buys into the national agenda and contributes to our shared goal of equitable progress.”

“Once they treated themselves with herbs from the jungle, [but] soon they will have health insurance and will be cared for by trained doctors and nurses in state-funded health centers,” Mr. Aquino said.

“When once children were taught merely the histories of suffering inside their madaris, soon they will also learn that peace can triumph.”

http://manilastandardtoday.com/2013/02/11/govt-milf-peace-effortaquino-spoilers-out-to-derail-plan/