rocess, Politics
OZAMIZ CITY, Philippines ? Mindanao peace activists say they expect greater public awareness of efforts to achieve peace on the island following Sarangani Representative Manny Pacquiao?s willingness ?to champion the cause of Mindanao peace.?
Mary Ann Arnado, secretary-general of the non-government Mindanao Peoples Caucus (MPC), said Pacquiao has agreed to lend a hand to the advocacy for Mindanao peace during an audience at his Batasan office early this week.
The meeting was part of the efforts of Mindanao peace advocates to drum up support for the peace talks, which started August 9.
The MPC has organized a 24-man weeklong lobby mission dubbed ?Conversations with Mindanao Grassroots,? in which leaders of Moro, Lumad and migrant settler communities on the island interact with government officials in the national capital to push for a ?broad people-based agenda for ending age-old social animosities.?
The weeklong mission was to wind up this weekend, with the two-day National Solidarity Conference on Mindanao at the University of the Philippines.
Over 100 people from the diplomatic community, foreign donors, the negotiating panels of the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) were invited to the conference on August 13.
The mission also said it was dismayed by erroneous reports about the MILF preparing for war.
?We know what?s happening on the ground; they are ready for talks. We are here (in Manila) to lend it further boost,? Catholic priest Chito Suganob of the Marawi prelature said by phone.
He said for peace advocates, they know that similar reports should be downplayed.
?And what is most important is that the ordinary people, whose lives are constantly rocked by intermittent skirmishes, have very high expectations from both the government and the MILF,? Suganob said.
Arnado said the boxing champ-turned-politician was not the only one showing support for the peace agenda.
?Aside from Pacquiao?s commitment, we also heard encouraging responses from other legislators on the question of striking a political negotiated peace with Moro rebels,? she told the Inquirer over the phone.
Arnado said even the lobby mission?s meeting with Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin was ?very fruitful.?
She said Gazmin, who had a stint in the Lanao provinces as a military officer, was ?open to listening? and had ?a receptive attitude.?
The defense department, she said, was in the process of developing a plan in support of the peace negotiations.
During the meeting with presidential peace adviser Teresita Deles, the mission delegates pushed for the strengthening of existing ceasefire mechanisms and the revival of the Ad Hoc Joint Action Group (Ahjag).
The Ahjag was a body composed of government and MILF personalities for the purpose of law enforcement operations in rebel areas.
Arnado said they were also able to clearly put across their concern of factoring in the lumad?s self-determination aspirations in the current negotiations.
Abdullah Dalidig, chair of the Muslim Multi-sectoral Movement for Peace and Development, said there was also a need to boost information campaign on the peace process.
He said among other factors, the lack of public awareness of the peace process was blamed for the poor reception of the controversial memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain.
The agreement, which would have given the MILF a larger area of control, was challenged by several politicians on the grounds it violated the Constitution.
Dalidig said the controversy might not have happened if people were properly informed about what the agreement was all about.
?That?s the lesson we learned from the MOA-AD, that everyone needs to get involved,? Aranado said.
In Alabel, Sarangani, Governor Miguel Dominguez appealed to both the government and the MILF to exercise caution in issuing pronouncements on the stalled peace talks.
?The peace process must be built around good faith and sincere efforts to bring peace in the island,? Dominguez said in a statement.
He also urged President Aquino to immediately order the resumption of the talks.
?I call on President Aquino to clearly lay down government policies and directions in dealing with the MILF and the armed conflict in the island, with primacy in involving Mindanaoans in the actual peace process,? Dominguez said.
Dominguez agreed that only through wider consultation can a real solution to the Mindanao problem be achieved.
