Palace keeping Esperon, rebukes MILF on 'done deal' position
abs-cbnNEWS.com | 08/07/2008 12:10 PM
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Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita on Thursday said that it is not about to sack Presidential Peace Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. after calls for his removal were made Wednesday by critics supposedly for "messing up" peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
Ermita said the matter of replacing Sec. Esperon was not even discussed in a National Security Council (NSC) meeting held Wednesday night which discussed developments in the peace process with MILF.
Ermita said Esperon is still able to handle the job formerly held by Press Secretary Jesus Dureza.
The executive secretary said Esperon briefed the President Arroyo and the Cabinet at the NSC meeting. He said Esperon discussed latest developments on the peace talks which hit a setback with the restraining order issued by the Supreme Court against the signing of by government representatives the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) supposedly last Tuesday.
Esperon: I am doing my best
Esperon has earlier brushed off the criticisms hurled against him. He said Wednesday that mounting calls for him to resign after allegedly bungling the government's ancestral domain agreement with the MILF merely challenges him to do his job better.
"Criticisms like this makes me want to strive more and challenges me to do my job better," Esperon said after arriving from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Esperon was referring to calls by several senators that President Arroyo should sack him as presidential adviser on the peace process.
"Hinihingi ko kay Pangulong Arroyo na sibakin na si Secretary Esperon bilang bilang presidential adviser on the peace process...sa ginawa ni Esperon, wala na siyang kredibilidad," Sen. Manuel Roxas II said in a press conference Wednesday.
Roxas added that Mrs. Arroyo could be held liable too if she continues to hold on to Esperon, who was immediately appointed to his current post after retiring as AFP chief of staff in May.
Sen. Francis Escudero, also on Wednesday, castigated Esperon for allegedly threatening North Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Piñol that the he should not expect the military to help the people of the province should he succeed in getting a restraining order on the MOA-AD from the court.
"Pangalawang beses nang katraydoran kung saka-sakali ang ginawa ni Gen. Esperon kung totoo nga 'yan. Trabaho at obligasyon ng Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) pangalagaan ang seguridad at karapatan ng gating mga kababayan, sino siya para magsabing hindi siya tutulong," the senator said.
Piñol has been vocal about his dissent on the agreement, which, if majority of voters agree in a plebiscite, would cede a large portion of the province to the expanded Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao,
Sen. Rodolfo Biazon, chairman of the Senate's defense committee, on the other hand, said Esperon and other government negotiators "messed up."
"Our peace panel had messed up this thing very badly. It had brought the situation to a critical point where it is now a becoming more and more a matter of national security concern," he said.
Esperon, however, said he is taking the criticisms in stride and is viewing all of them constructively.
"I serve at the pleasure of the president. I believe I am doing my best," he said.
With regard to Roxas' call, Esperon said, "I'm not one who would resign from a hard job but well, I'll think about what he says because he's a senator of the land. I'm more challenged to do even better even more. We cannot give up on peace."
Rebukes MILF position on MOA
Ermita meanwhile reiterated the government position that the MOA-AD is not yet a "done deal" as claimed by MILF officials.
He said the MILF knows that the mere initialing of the draft MOA does not make the process complete. He said a final comprehensive agreement would still be needed to make it implementable.
Ermita also reiterated assurances made by top government and military officials Wednesday to local government officials in Mindanao especially in North Cotabato that the AFP will defend Mindanao residents and would not allow violent acts to be brought upon them.
The reiteration was made by Ermita after Piñol’s statement Wednesday. Piñol’s claim was earlier belied by Esperon as well as Armed Forces’ chief Alexander Yano also on Wednesday.
Ermita made the assurance as President Arroyo left for the Beijing to witness the opening of the 2008 Olympics Thursday morning. Ermita said this was one of the instructions left by the president as she embarked on her trip.
Ermita also clarified that there is no major security threat to Mindanao though the president's instructions, he said, to put security forces on alert were in anticipation of what groups in the area, including the MILF, may or could do because of the developments in the peace process.
Mrs. Arroyo’s executive secretary also said that secretaries of departments of National Defense and Interior and Local Government were instructed to talk to local officials to dissuade them from further issuing inflammatory statements and instead calm down the situation in Mindanao.
Ermita said the president left specific instructions to let people know that the AFP is monitoring the situation in Mindanao. Ermita said this is so that everyone will have peace of mind in those areas. With a report from RG Cruz, ABS-CBN News
