Press Release
January 24, 2008

PIMENTEL HOPES THAT GOV'T, MILF NEGOTIATORS WILL HAVE MEETING OF MINDS ON FEDERALISM PROPOSAL

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Nene" Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today expressed the hope that the negotiators from the government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) will come to an agreement on the proposal to create a BangsaMoro Federal State in the next round of peace talks to pave the way for the signing of a final peace agreement.

Pimentel said both sides should work harder and exert greater determination in breaking the deadlock in the talks in view of the announced plan of the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team (IMT) to pull out of areas in Mindanao which are covered by the ceasefire if no agreement is forged by August this year.

Maj. Gen. Datuk Mat Yassin, head of the 60-man IMT, ruled out the extension of the deployment of the peacekeepers since they have been in Mindanao long enough. When the team was sent to the conflict areas in 2005, they were expected to stay there for only three months.

Noting the rising tension between the two sides due to the stalemated talks, Pimentel warned that the longer the deadlock drags on, the greater the danger of an outbreak of hostilities becomes.

Already, he said younger, more aggressive MILF rebels have begun agitating for a resumption of war, even threatening to seize the leadership of the insurgent group.

Pimentel said the failure to wrap up the more than 10-year old peace talks has prejudiced the people of Muslims Mindanao as this has delayed the rehabilitation of war-ravaged areas, and discouraged the entry of investors, businessmen and tourists.

The United States has committed itself to provide $30 million worth of development aid to Muslim Mindanao as early as 2003 upon the signing of the peace agreement.

On the proposal to establish a BangsaMoro federal state, Pimentel said that the government and MILF negotiators should find a way to reach an agreement on this scheme, as a long-term goal to fulfill the aspirations of Muslim Filipinos for genuine autonomy.

"Both sides should understand that the federalism proposal is a long process that will need an amendment to the Constitution," he said.

At the same time, the senator from Mindanao stressed that the creation of a BangsaMoro federal state should only be a part of the bigger proposal to federalize the whole country.

Pimentel said the BangsaMoro federal state could serve as a prototype of the federal system which will involve the establishment of 10 federal states in the country.

"Even if the government's idea is to create only a BangsaMoro federal state, it has to be approved by the electorate in the whole country in a plebiscite. But how can the Filipino people accept a federal set up which is limited only to Muslim Mindanao, when it is the whole country that should benefit from this system of government?"

The peace talks were stalled in mid-December when the MILF panel protested the insertion by government negotiators of the phrase "constitutional processes" in a draft agreement that called for the establishment of a BangsaMoro Juridical Entity.

News Latest News Feed