Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process
(OPAPP) Secretary Jesus Dureza on Tuesday announced that President Rodrigo
Duterte has approved a new “Roadmap to Peace” that would cover all groups
fighting the government.
”So let me open up by immediately informing everyone that
the President yesterday approved the new "Roadmap to Peace", we call
it,” Dureza said in a press conference at the Malacanan Palace
Dureza said the ‘New Road Map to Peace’ would cover the
government engagement with the Bangsamoro, the Communist Party of the
Philippines-National Democratic Front (CPP-NDF), and other groups like the
Cordillera People’s Liberation Army.
”There will be inclusivity, henceforth, under the Duterte
Roadmap for Peace where all the Bangsamoro factions, groups will have to come
under one roof so that there will be inclusivity in the implementation of all
this particular agreements,” Dureza told the media.
Dureza said the Philippine government peace panel was going
to pick up the pieces that had been left off from the previous agreements,
including with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) under Nur Misuari in
1996’s Final Peace Agreement (FPA), and the recent Comprehensive Agreement on
Bangsamoro (CAB) with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
”And of course, we have also to deal with the governance
unit called the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao and perhaps we can put
also in the same level the concerns of the IPs or the Lumads. Bangsamoro
faction will come under one group in Duterte road map for peace,” Dureza said.
In the case of CPP-NDF, Dureza said the formal talks had
been firmly set on Aug. 20 to 27 with the panel to be headed by Labor Secretary
Silvestre Bello.
”We look forward in engaging our counterparts on the other
side of the table by August 20,” Dureza said.
Dureza explained that the date of the start of formal talks
with the CPP-NDF has been moved from July to August to give way for the release
of the political detainees who will participate in the peace process.
Dureza said the comprehensive peace road map that hopefully
would bring about peace and development in the land got the presidential
imprimatur during a closed door meeting late Monday afternoon in Malacanang.
President Duterte approved in toto or in its entirety the
peace formula presented by Dureza.
At the same time, the President adopted Dureza's proposed
strategy of implementing massive development on the ground simultaneously with
the work to implement agreements that government had entered into.
”I can sign a hundred peace agreements but if those on the
ground do not immediately feel the dividends of peace, those agreements will
not be sustainable,” Dureza said.
President Duterte forthwith directed that the executive
order of the OPAPP be amended to enable it to oversee all development projects
and at the same time empower it to implement projects that were related to
peace.
Dureza said the work on the new proposed bangsamoro enabling
law would be done simultaneous with the moves to shift the form of government
to federalism.
Dureza announced that President Duterte and Misuari have
already talked over the phone.
The OPAPP chief expressed optimism that the Philippines
Dureza said NDF founding chairman Jose Maria Sison would
play crucial role in the negotiations.
On the kidnap-for-ransom Abu Sayyaf Group, Dureza said the
government policy remained the same that “those who committed crimes are
answerable for their crimes.”
He also thanked presumptive Senate President Aquilino ‘Koko’
Pimentel III and House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez for their full support in the
so-called New Road Map to Peace by the Duterte administration.
”We thought that the legislative branch will be a very
important component of our work for peace because the executive department
which I represent would merely sign an agreement but we know very well that
implementation of an enabling law will have to come through Congress and that
Congress should approve it,” Dureza said.
”And so, putting already the legislative branch already on
early notice and onboard will shorten also this effort that we had. So with
that we will end here and if there will be some questions that will be asked,”
he added.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=905374
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