Senator Juan Ponce Enrile on Monday cautioned against hastily celebrating the peace agreement between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, saying many issues surrounding the pact still need to be resolved.
“We’ll have to study the problem very carefully
because this has a very lasting impact on the future of this Republic,” Ernile
said, adding that, “there are so many ifs” about the new agreement, among these
how it will impact on the peace pact with the Moro National Liberation Front
signed in 1996.
Complaints from the MNLF about government’s failure to honor
its side of the 1996 pact have time and again flared up in violence, the latest
last year’s close to month-long fighting in Zamboanga City
But he declined to comment on the MILF position that the new
agreement abrogated the 1996 pact with the MNLF.
“Well, that’s their position, I cannot comment on that until
I’ve studied” the new agreement that will, among others, replace the Autonomous
Region in Muslim Mindanao, which was created through the 1996 pact, with a new
entity, the Bangsamoro.
He also said the agreement with the MILF “involves a very
major security and political issue and constitutional problem for the country.
So, you cannot just make a judgment on that until you have seen and read the
whole text of the agreement.”
Enrile noted that the new accord, specifically the creation
of the Bangsamoro, would impact on the country’s territorial integrity, which
is a constitutional issue.
And the involvement of foreign entities also made it a
national security concern.
Enrile said he will study also the national security
implications on the new accord since there was foreign content on the issue.
“There’s a foreign content here,” he said. “Merong mga (There
are) international players involved. You are dealing with the Organization of
Islamic (Cooperation). You are dealing with Malaysia
And while he acknowledged that everybody is hoping for a
peaceful settlement to the Mindanao conflict,
he asked if the price would be worth it.
“What’s the price for that peace settlement? Is it
commensurate to the peace that we want or is it going to be just like what
Prime Minister (Neville) Chamberlain of England concluded with Hitler? ‘Peace
in our time’ when it turned out to be World War II. I cannot say. I do not
know. I’m not saying that we’re going to have a problem like that. You are
asking me a futuristic questions that I do not know of,” he said.
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/79562/so-many-ifs-in-pact-with-milf---enrile
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