Better position for gov’t achieved in peace process under PNoy — Deles

From the Philippine Information Agency (May 3): Better position for gov’t achieved in peace process under PNoy — Deles

The Administration of President Benigno S. Aquino III will turn over to the next President a peace process that is better-positioned than it was six years ago, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Quintos Deles said.

In her speech at the recently held UP Public Lectures on Philippine Presidency and Administration, Deles said the Aquino Administration scored major successes including the conclusion and signing of a major peace agreement to settle decades of conflict in Mindanao. She added that these were done despite the difficulties the government encountered in the past six years in its efforts to forge peace with rebel groups.

According to Deles, the Aquino government was also able to provide convergence under the Bangsamoro peace agreement for the two Moro peace tables, and provided closure to the peace table in the Cordilleras while it is close to completing another closure process to a Visayas-based peace table.

“There will still be major unfinished business that we will have to pass on…but we” will be able to turn over fewer and better-positioned peace tables to the next administration,” she said.

Deles noted that the peace process “was in disarray” when President Aquino III took over from the previous administration in 2010.

The Aquino Administration had inherited a seven-year impasse with the Communist Party of the Philippines/New People’s Army/National Democratic Front (CPP/NPA/NDF); a failed Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF); and a number of agreements pending further implementation, including the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF)’s 1996 Final Peace Agreement; the sipat or ceasefire agreement with Cordillera Bodong Administration-Cordillera People’s Liberation Army (CBA-CPLA) in 1986; and the interim agreement with the Rebolusyonaryong Partidong Manggagawa ng Pilipinas/Revolutionary Proletarian Army/Alex Boncayao Brigade (RPM-P/RPA/ABB) signed in 2000.

Deles said most of the challenges were hurdled in this administration’s six-year run. (OPAPP)

http://news.pia.gov.ph/article/view/3001462178616/better-position-for-gov-t-achieved-in-peace-process-under-pnoy-deles