Press Release
August 15, 2008

KIKO: RENEGOTIATE MOA, JUNK UNCONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS
"Only more effective governance in ARMM is key to lasting peace in Muslim Mindanao"

Senate Majority Leader and Independent senator Kiko Pangilinan today pushed for the renegotiation of the controversial GRP-MILF Memorandum of Agreement and the junking of its unconstitutional provisions saying, "Only peace negotiations and aggressive efforts at effective governance with concrete results in ARMM will bring about lasting peace and prosperity."

"THE MOA should not be forced down our throats. The credibility of these peacepacts is now highly suspect with Malacanang pressing for ChaCha along with it, and the flawed, exclusive process undertaken to have the agreement," Kiko said

Malacanang this week pronounced that it's all systems go for Charter Change in order to pave the way for the GRP-MILF Peacepact. Lawmakers, including KIko, condemned the move, saying the timing and mode of revising the Constitution allegedly for the problem in Mindanao is highly suspicious.

"To ease the tensions and regain lost momentum, the MoA should be renegotiated and efforts must focus on a constitional peacepact and not on ChaCha. Even their staunchest allies in the Senate have expressed serious reservations against the Mo. Its existing form is dead in the waters of the Senate. The way out is a renegotiated agreement and ensuring good governance in the ARMM," Kiko added.

"IF ARMM, with the aggressive backing of the National Government, succeeds in bringing economic growth and development in the regions, if it succeeds in providing jobs and investment opportunities for the region's poor, if basic services delivery such as health and education slowly begin to take shape, then it will render the insurgency irrelevant. Nothing more is persuasive than success," Kiko ended.

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