Government affirms vow for Mindanao

From the Manila Bulletin (Jun 9): Government affirms vow for Mindanao

The Aquino government is committed to bring “doable and durable peace” in Mindanao, fully inclined to strike a final peace accord with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), according to Presidential Peace Adviser Teresita Quintos Deles.

In a statement sent to the Manila Bulletin, Deles said the present administration is “doing its best to ensure ‘more doable and durable peace’ in Mindanao,” pointing out that President Aquino’s drive for a final agreement with the MILF “has not waned.”

Deles and MILF Chairman Al-Haj Murad Ebrahim attended the recent 27th Asia-Pacific Roundtable in Kuala Lumpur where officials from various nations discussed issues and strategies on bring peace in the region.

The Bernama, Malaysia’s national news agency, interviewed Murad at the sidelines of the gathering, and reported the MILF chieftain as expressing concerns over the postponements in the regular schedules of exploratory talks tackling three remaining annexes to the rebel group’s initial accord with Malacañang.

Such glitches in the formal talks might become threats to the improving peace in Mindanao, the news agency quoted Murad as saying Wednesday.

In apparent reply, Deles explained that the rescheduling of the Malaysia-brokered talks were just meant for President Aquino to review the initial outputs of the negotiations to ensure better outcome in the implementation process.

“The President’s instruction has not waned. We will implement everything that we sign; GPH (Government of the Philippines) will deliver whatever it commits legally, politically and in all ways necessary. No false promises, no blind commitments, no agreement (to) cause problems further down the road or bring harm to other areas of governance and reform,” Deles said.

Malaysian third-party facilitator Tengku Datu Abdul Ghafar Tengku bin Mohamed was also invited to the multi-nation roundtable meeting to update delegates on the progress of the MILF-GPH talks, said Deles, head of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace Process (OPAPP).

Deles said that as earlier pronounced, the Aquino government will strike a final peace accord before the end of the President’s term in June, 2016.

The MILF and GPH peace panels signed last October 15 the Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro (FAB), an initial accord being fleshed out with four annexes under discussions in follow up talks in the city of Kuala Lumpur.

The four annexes include Normalization, Power-sharing, Wealth-sharing, and Transitional Arrangements and Modalities, which are basic parts of a final comprehensive agreement. The fourth annex has already been finalized, the two peace panels said.

FAB seeks to create a new autonomous political entity named the Bangsamoro, which will replace in 2015 the 23-year-old Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in a process Deles described as requiring utmost care.

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