Palace still trusts GRP panel members –Coloma

From the Philippine News Agency (Feb 26): Palace still trusts GRP panel members –Coloma

Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said on Thursday President Benigno Aquino III still maintains faith and trust on the members of the Philippine government peace panel (GRP).

Coloma assured this after Senator Francis Escudero called on President Aquino to replace Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) Secretary Teresita Deles and government chief negotiator Miriam Coronel-Ferrer as members of the GRP.

”The faith and trust of the President to the peace panel members, including Secretary Deles and Prof. Ferrer, remain intact. They perform their duties based on the guidelines given by the President,” Coloma said in a media briefing in Malacanang.

Last Tuesday, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano said President Aquino should fire Deles and Coronel for supposedly defending the MILF despite the involvement of some MILF fighters in the bloody Mamasapano encounter that left 44 Special Action Force (SAF) men dead on Jan. 25.

Cayetano asked the President to replace the two GRP officials with representatives who can defend the interest of the Philippine government.

Deles and Ferrer, meanwhile, found a valuable ally from Senate President Franklin Drilon who said the calls for resignation of the GRP panel members will achieve nothing but will only derail the peace process.

“I appeal for a deeper public support and understanding of the role of the government peace panel in the realization of our goal of providing lasting and genuine peace in Mindanao, which for four decades suffered from all forms of insurgency and criminality,” Drilon said.

“While I fully understand and recognize the public's high emotions following the Mamasapano tragedy, Secretary Teresita Deles and Prof. Miriam Coronel-Ferrer do not deserve to be maligned in such an unwarranted manner," he added.

A long peace negotiation between the GRP and the MILF has resulted in the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) on March 27, 2014.

The Senate is now deliberating on the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) that will embody the peace agreement and will create the new Bangsamoro political entity.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=739303