Authorities
in this city were on alert starting Thursday, as various text messages causing
undue alarm among the people, circulated in this city.
While
the convergence is not a violation per se, Salazar said the authorities remain
vigilant to ensure safety and protection of the civilians who have been
traumatized because of the November 27, 2001 “Cabatangan siege.”
“We
still remember this and we do not want to further traumatize the people and the
children of Zamboanga
City
Mayor
Ma. Isabelle Climaco-Salazar has called on the Office of the Presidential
Assistant on the Peace Process (OPAPP) to address issues of diverse groups
pertaining to the proposed framework agreement and to confine all collective
efforts within areas under the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and
not in this city.
“Zamboanga
City is for peace and supports the government stand on peace process in
Mindanao, we uphold our stand on non-inclusion in ARMM and thus call on OPAPP
to address issues of diverse groups and confine them in ARMM as Zamboanga City
is not part of ARMM,” Salazar said, as she revealed about a City Council
resolution and a letter sent to the OPAPP regarding the matter.
“We
will stand by the desires of the Zamboangueños,” Salazar declared.
Salazar
on Tuesday formally wrote Secretary Teresita Quintos-Deles of OPAPP, copy
furnished to the Office of the President, seeking intervention through the
provision of another avenue where these groups can truly and freely ventilate
their grievances in a forum where their sentiments can be shared and
felt--which she said should be held in ARMM areas only.
“While
it is beyond my comprehension of the MNLF decision that the supposed venue be
held here in the city, it must be stressed that Zamboanga City is not part of
the ARMM, a political resolution made known, through an overwhelming votes cast
by our constituents, in a plebiscite called for that purpose,” she said in the
letter to the OPAPP.
The
mayor was prompted to write the letter in the wake of a reported consultative
meeting/assembly by MNLF forces at the residence of former ARMM governor and
MNLF chair Nur Misuari in his residence in Barangay San Roque, this city.
Misuari, in a press conference Thursday morning held at his
residence in Barangay San Roque this city, has questioned the build up of
troops in this city, Basilan and Sulu and declared the proposed framework
agreement between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)
as without basis.
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