'Zamboanga City will not be part of Bangsamoro' - mayor

From InterAksyon (Feb 18): 'Zamboanga City will not be part of Bangsamoro' - mayor



Zamboanga Mayor Isabelle Climaco-Salazar at a press conference

Mayor Ma. Isabelle Climaco-Salazar vowed to oppose any attempt to include Zamboanga City in the Bangsamoro entity that will be formed as part of the peace agreement between the government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

“We like to put into proper perspective the official and unwavering stand of the city of Zamboanga: we are reiterating and continue to reiterate that the city of Zamboanga, and/or any of its 98 component barangays and its municipal waters as defined under the Fisheries Code, should be excluded (from) the Bangsamoro,” Salazar, speaking as “one of the members of the various stakeholders” in her city, told a public forum with the Bangsamoro Transition Committee on February 12.

While stressing that the city supports the initiatives of President Benigno Aquino III to end the decades-long hostilities in Mindanao, the mayor said they continue to receive reports of what she called “illegal” MILF activities in Zamboanga barangays.

She also urged the MILF leadership to take full supervision and control of their members.

“It should educate, act appropriately and immediately instruct its members to cease and desist from performing any and all acts that may derail the peace process and the tranquillity of communities, whether within and specifically outside of the core territory under Framework Agreement such as Zamboanga City, to ensure that the processes toward just and lasting peace will succeed,” she said.

She also urged the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process to “immediately act on reported MILF presence in areas outside the identified Bangsamoro core territory” and draw up protocols to guide local government units in addressing groups or individuals introducing themselves as MILF.

She said that on January 17, a group of MILF members attempted to put up a political office in Barangay Cawit, on the city’s west coast.

And just a day before the forum, “a group of individuals claiming to be a members of the MILF attempted to conduct MILF-related activities in the island barangay of Sacol but was prevailed upon by our police authorities who ordered a stop to such activities.”

Salazar said their position is the same as their opposition to inclusion in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which the Bangsamoro is set to replace.

But although Zamboanga City residents help rallies and overwhelmingly voted not to join the ARMM, “Barangay Cabatangan was made (a) satellite office of ARMM,” she said.

In August 2008, the city government was one of the petitioners against the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Doman, which was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

The decision was followed by fighting between the government and MILF that displaced up to 700,000 people in Central Mindanao.

Zamboanga was also the target of attacks by both the MNLF and MILF, the latest being last September’s incursion by followers of MNLF founder Nur Misuari, which set off almost a month of fighting that left more than 200 dead and displaced more than 120,000 people.

“Our call is for OPAPP and the GPH to continuously dialogue not only with the MILF but also the MNLF and all other groups for that matter.  Do your work and never get tired of talking if we are to attain an inclusive, acceptable and meaningful peace accord,” Salazar said.

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/80995/zamboanga-city-will-not-be-part-of-bangsamoro---mayor