On the eve of the 15th year of the creation of his post, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Hermogenes Esperon said Sunday that efforts to resolve the conflict with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) will continue despite the ongoing attrocities in Central Mindanao.

Esperon arrived in the Philippines from Malaysia, where he brought a letter from President Arroyo to Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi to explain the government's refusal to sign the controversial Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD), which Malaysian officials support.

The letter to Badawi also discussed possible ways of sustaining the peace process and other related issues in Mindanao.

Esperon said that the government will not give up on peace even as fighting eruped anew in Central Mindanao between the military and alleged rogue members of the MILF.

The President's chief peace adviser said that the "door to peace" is "always open" and that the peace process will proceed despite the setbacks.

OPAPP marks 15th year

Esperon's office will observe its 15th anniversary on Monday, with simple ceremonies at the OPAPP offices in Pasig City.

Former OPAPP head and now Commission on Elections commissioner Rene Sarmiento, will be the guest of honor and speaker at the anniversary rites, while peace advocates Prof. Rudy Rodil and lawyer Sedfrey Candelaria will also be present to speak about the ongoing peace process.

Rodil is a former member of the disbanded peace panel talking to the MILF. Candelaria is a member of the government's negotiating panel with the Communist Party of the Philippines/New People's Army/National Democratic Front.

Esperon said that September was chosen by the government as the national month of peace because it was on Sept. 2, 1996 that the government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) signed a peace agreement in Mindanao.

Yano: Airstrikes to continue

Meanwhile, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief of staff Alexander Yano denied Sunday in Zamboanga City that he has received instructions from the president to stop military air strikes in Central Mindanao.

His statement followed reports and claims the President has done so in a meeting with peace advocates and the Mindanao People's Caucus (MPC) from Central Mindanao.

“[I have] not received such order. The commander still has the prerogative to use high powered artillery if necessity calls for it. The instruction has not changed," Yano said in an interview Sunday morning.

Yano also did not want to elaborate on the issue of US troops' presence in Mindanao.

"It is a national policy, it is not the AFP's concern,” he said, adding that policy makers should be asked of this instead.

But in a text message to ABS-CBN Zamboanga, Prof. Octavio Dinampo of the MPC said the President did tell them during their meeting that the airstrikes would end, after the death of six civilians in Maguindanao.

"When PGMA told us of no more aerial and artillery bombings after the death of children and their pregnant mother (the Mandis family), [Chief of Staff] Yano is still on the way to Malacañang. So when PGMA says no more airstrikes that does not mean some sort of directive or taken as policy to invalidate what the government has agreed before to minimize bombings during Ramadan. PGMA, I believe, told us what was relayed to her by the [Department of National Defense] secretary [Gilbert Teodoro]," Dinampo’s text message read.

The AFP chief of staff arrived Sunday for the turn-over of P300,000 worth of goods from the local government of Zamboanga City and the Zamboanga City Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry to the army for the benefit of soldiers.

Wee Siong Ben, president of the local Chinese chamber said this is in full support of the government's effort to go after criminals and maintain peace and order in Mindanao.

Zamboanga City mayor Celso Lobregat said Yano is the only Mindanaoan who made it as an army chief, and now an AFP chief, and that he will soon be the adopted son of Zamboanga.

Lobregat also said Yano will be the guest of honor in the annual Zamboanga Hermosa Festival on October.

Yano thanked the donors, saying that this is one way of boosting the morale of their troops in the ground.

He said he is also glad that sectors recognize the efforts of the soldiers to combat lawlessness.

Yano also said he is bound to Sulu to make a routine visit to his troops in the area.

He also commented efforts are now being undertaken to investigate on the recent grenade blast in the area. He said this is a given so it does not necessarily call for a reaction. With a report from Jewel Reyes, ABS-CBN Zamboanga