After some delay, the 42nd formal exploratory talks between the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) opened on Thursday with both peace panels exuding confidence of finally reaching a Comprehensive Agreement at “the end of the year.”
This was the statement of GPH chief negotiator Miriam Coronel-Ferrer at the opening of the talks now taking place in
“The Aquino administration has less than 1,000 days left, let us make the most of these days, before we get caught again in the whirlpool of the next electoral campaign, or our national attention and resources again be consumed by the next super typhoon, earthquake or other devastating events. So the time is now!” Ferrer said.
Heading the MILF peace panel is Mohagher Iqbal.
The peace talk is aimed at ending the long-drawn
The GPH and the MILF will focus their negotiations of completing the issues on power sharing and normalization annexes.
Ferrer apologized in the one day delay for the opening of the talks but thanked host
But Ferrer said this paved the way for the “sub-panel to work on the draft on the Normalization Annex,” adding that “we believe that they were able to cover significant ground on their meeting.”
In her opening statement, the GPH panel chairman gave a preview of what were accomplished by the two peace panels this year.
“Just a little bit of review of recent history, Ferrer said, ”we signed the first set of consensus between us, the GPH-MILF Decision Points on Principles. In October 2012, in a grand ceremony in Malacañan, we signed the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro. Afterwards, we completed two annexes – the Annex on Transitional Arrangements and Modalities in February this year, followed by the Annex on Revenue Generation and Wealth Sharing in July. In between, we launched in another grand ceremony, this time in
“So what has the Bangsamoro people gained so far? Starting with the most important,” she said.Ferrer enumerated them as follow:
The acknowledgement of and a good, inclusive and non-imposing definition of the Bangsamoro identity;
The acknowledgment of the legitimate grievances of the Bangsamoro people;
A potentially expanded core territory for the Bangsamoro, based on the consent of the governed;
A ministerial form of government with a unique structure of government, unique because it is the only one of its kind in the rest of the country;
Much-enhanced wealth sharing arrangement. We know that ARMM did indeed suffer from real structural deficiencies that did not allow it to exercise fiscal autonomy, so now we have the additional taxes devolved and new sharing formula from government revenues, increasing the shares for the Bangsamoro;
The most important, the automatically appropriated and to be regularly released Bangsamoro block grant;
The Special Development Fund for rehabilitation and development purposes, to be released upon the ratification of the Bangsamoro Basic Law;
Special socio-economic programs for conflict affected areas, including combatants and their communities that will be part of the Normalization process;
A holistic program to be developed for transitional justice and reconciliation;
A proactive role in keeping the peace in their communities for the MILF;
A new concept called “Bangsamoro waters,” again very unique because we will not find this water regime in other parts of the country;
A plural system for the administration of justice. Ferrer also said a list of powers, including around 50 exclusive powers or fully devolved powers and more than 10-15 concurrent or joint powers relating to the administration of justice, the management and protection of various resources, disaster risk reduction and management, trade and economic development, and matters important to the practices and way of life of Muslims (hajj, umrah, halal certification, Shari’ah courts).
Various intergovernmental mechanisms such as the intergovernmental fiscal policy board, intergovernmental body for environmental and developmental plans and, as contemplated in the Power Sharing Annex, a similar IGR mechanism between the Bangsamoro legislature and the Philippine Congress, she pointed out.
Ferrer also disclosed of the presence of a Third Party Monitoring Team (TPMT).which hopes to meet the MILF leadership over the weekend.
“We are extending this message to our counterparts if it can be done, a meeting with the TPMT in
“In all, we have the elements of a promising, just, and principled agreement that will stand scrutiny of informed and concerned students and practitioners of negotiated political settlements,” Ferrer said.
“This much we have proven recently at the Wilton Park conference that brought together government negotiators and third party facilitators, organized with the support of the Foreign Commonwealth Office of the British Government and attended by several of us here including our facilitator here, Tengku Ghafar, along with the Malaysian Facilitator with the Talks on the Southern Thailand process, myself, the former Chair of the Panel Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, and Secretary Deles as well as by Emma Leslie and Tom Phipps of course who is very much on top of organizing this conference,” she said..
Ferrer assured that the “government has committed to all of these elements in good faith, and trust that the MILF will use this chance to prove the potential of Bangsamoro leadership and autonomous governance,” adding “that in return, the MILF will prove that it is ready to transform and participate in nonviolent politics. That it is cognizant of the rights of all sectors who will fall under the administrative and political jurisdiction of the Bangsamoro political entity.”
At the same time, Ferrer said “central government accords the Bangsamoro with respect and parity of esteem, so will it ensure the protection of vested property rights, the recognition of customary laws and rights to communal property of other indigenous peoples (IPs), the recognition of women’s right to meaningful political participation and provisions for plans along the lines of Gender and Development; the basic rights of all regardless of class, creed, disability, gender and ethnicity; and the bridging of differences with other Moro groups – in order to ensure not only broad based support for this process and its implementation but the long-term wellbeing, peace, security and belongingness of those Filipinos and Moros who will live under the politico-administrative jurisdiction of the Bangsamoro political entity that is part and parcel of the Republic of the Philippines.”
”We know that there are details that we still need to come to terms with. But none are so great as to throw away everything that has been achieved,” she said.
Ferrer cited Article IX under the section Miscellaneous of the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) that says: “The parties commit to work further on the details of the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro in the context of this document and complete the comprehensive agreement by the end of the year.”
In attendance during the opening ceremony were Tengku Dato’ Ab Ghafar Tengku Mohamed, the Malaysian Secretariat and the members of the ICG, Ueno-san (Japan), Nikash-san (UK), and others who will come eventually from the state and from our very committed civil society members of the international NGO members of the International Contact Group (ICG), Ali Saleem of Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (CHD), Emma Leslie of Conciliation Resources, Dr. Sudibyo Markus (Muhammadiyah), and Alberto Quattrucci (Community of Sant'Egidio).
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=594391
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