MILF wants Cabinet-ranked peace panel chief
abs-cbnNEWS.com | 12/24/2008 3:57 PM
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The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on Wednesday urged the Philippine government to appoint a Cabinet-level secretary instead of an undersecretary to head peace negotiations with the separatist rebel group.
Jun Mantawil, head of the MILF peace panel secretariat, said that while it respects the clout and caliber of Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Rafael Seguis as the new government peace panel chairman, he claimed that all GRP chief peace negotiators since 2001 were Cabinet-ranked.
Previous GRP panel heads include now Press Secretary Jesus Dureza, former Presidential Management Staff (PMS) Secretary Silvestre Afable Jr., former AFP vice-chief of staff Ret. Gen. Rodolfo Garcia, now Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, and current National Security Council chief Norberto Gonzales. [Eds. note: Garcia did not have the rank of secretary.]
Mantawil also noted that reinstated member of the GRP peace panel, Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman, is even more senior than Seguis.
Retired General Hermogenes Esperon, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, earlier disclosed Seguis as the head of the new GRP peace panel whose members include Pangandaman, General Santos City Mayor Adelbert Antonino, and sectoral representative Ronald Adamat from Maguindanao.
Ermita announced Wednesday that the fifth member of the government negotiating panel is Iligan lawyer-businessman Tomas Cabili Jr., a son of former Tomas L. Cabili, who was senator from 1946 to 1955.
Esperon said Pangandaman would also represent the Muslim community and continuity in the negotiations since he was a member of the previous panel chaired then by Garcia. Esperon said that Antonino, meanwhile, would represent local government executives and uphold the interest of Christians as well as Muslims and Lumads in SOCSKSARGEN in the negotiations.
Khaled Musa, deputy chairman of the MILF committee on information, also urged the new government peace panel to negotiate first with critics of the aborted ancestral land deal before facing MILF peace negotiators.
He said negotiators should talk to the the Supreme Court, Congress, and politicians like Senators Mar Roxas, former Senator Franklin Drilon, North Cotabato Vice-Governor Emmanuel Piňol, Iligan City Mayor Lawrence Cruz, and Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat before returning to the negotiating table.
“What guarantee that what we talk and agreed these branches of government and personalities would not ambush us in the finishing line?” Musa asked luwaran.com
MILF Spokesman Eid Kabalu also said the scuttled Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) would be one of the talking points in the peace negotiations once they resume.
"This is a resumption of talks so the point is we will be talking where we stopped, and where did we stop? We stopped at the non-conclusion of the MOA on ancestral domain," he told ANC.
