MILF: Peace process has gone far, no turning back: GPH peace panel chair

Posted to the MILF Website (Apr 27): Peace process has gone far, no turning back: GPH peace panel chair



Photo courtesy of Jake Narte, Sarangani PIO

“We have gone this far in our peace process. There should be no turning back.”

Government peace panel chief negotiator Prof. Miriam Coronel-Ferrer highlighted this statement in a gratitude speech accepting this year’s Hillary Clinton Award for Advancing Women in Peace.

In a luncheon ceremony at Georgetown University in USA on Thursday, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton personally handed the award to Ferrer .The recognition cited Ferrer’s indefatigable work to bring about peace in the Philippines and for her historic role as the first female chief negotiator to sign a peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

The Philippine Government has been engaged in peace negotiation with the MILF for 17 years. On March 27, 2014, the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) was signed by the two parties and was witnessed by international communities.

Coronel-Ferrer has signed on behalf of the Philippine Government the agreement which is aimed to establish an autonomous region that will replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

“This Agreement will enable MILF combatants and other disenfranchised segments of the Moro population to participate in meaningful autonomous governance,” she said.

Coronel-Ferrer underscored, “It provides a road map for a new set of more democratic, representative and accountable political institutions.  It taps diverse modes for delivering socioeconomic programs to decommissioned combatants, the internally displaced and communities long affected by the conflict.”

The government’s chief negotiator said the CAB bridges the majority-minority divide toward a shared future “where fellow-Filipinos live in peace under one flag in an undivided territory.”

As a grandmother, Coronel-Ferrer said she doesn’t want her granddaughter to “inherit a country divided by prejudice, dishonored by sexism, and stunted by the narrow vision of members of its political class.”

http://www.luwaran.com/index.php/welcome/item/907-peace-process-has-gone-far-no-turning-back-gph-peace-panel-chair