ARROYO GOV'T TOLD TO BE TRUTHFUL ON STATUS OF MINDANAO PEACE PROCESS

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today urged the Arroyo government to be truthful and transparent about the real status of its peace negotiation with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the face of the string of setbacks that has hounded the quest for lasting peace in Mindanao.

Despite the fact that the peace talks are now in a state of limbo, Pimentel said it sounds unrealistic and deceptive for Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Avelino Razon to say that the government expects to forge a final peace agreement with the MILF before the end of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's term in the middle of 2010.

The senator from Mindanao lamented that the government has so far been unsuccessful in reviving the negotiation which was indefinitely suspended after it scrapped a year ago the memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain as a consequence of the Supreme Court's ruling that the agreement was fraught with constitutional infirmities.

The Malaysian government, as facilitator, has postponed the preliminary peace talks scheduled to be held in Kuala Lumpur this month following the treacherous ambuscade by MILF fighters of government troops in Basilan resulting in the massacre of l3 Marines. The rebel attack was deemed a violation of the government-MILF ceasefire agreement.

"After almost nine years that the Arroyo government has been in power, the Moro secessionist conflict is still very much alive. A huge number of people in Muslim Mindanao continue to suffer from the horrors of war. Sadly speaking, the government has squandered the opportunities to negotiate a peace settlement with the MILF," Pimentel said.

The opposition leader said the government is largely to blame for the fiasco over the Mindanao peace process, citing the following shortcomings and missteps it has committed:

First, government failed to draw up a comprehensive peace agenda that will address the aspirations of Muslim Filipinos for genuine autonomy and preservation of their cultural identity.

It has ignored well-meaning suggestions to offer to the MILF the federalism proposal as a long-term and ultimate political solution to Muslim insurgency.

Second, the government opted to choose Malaysia as peace broker despite warnings that it would not be able to impartially and effectively discharge this role because of its unresolved territorial dispute with the Philippines over Sabah. Such dispute has put Malaysia in a conflict-of-interest situation.

Malaysia was chosen as peace broker at the behest of the MILF. But as National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales has admitted, Malaysia was a wrong choice for this role because it has shown its bias pro-MILF in the negotiation.

In previous months, Malacañang floated the idea of replacing Malaysia with Indonesia and the Organization of Islamic Conference in facilitating the peace process. This was tantamount to an admission that Malaysia has failed to live up to its role in mediating the conflict. But up to now the government has not dropped Malaysia as peace broker.

Third, the government imposed secrecy and kept Congress in the dark about its negotiation with the MILF on the issue of ancestral domain.

Leaders of Congress were able to secure copies of the MOA on Ancestral Domain only after it had already been signed by government and MILF negotiators. The agreement was found to be severely flawed because it virtually ceded part of the national territory to the MILF through the proposed creation of a so-called BangsaMoro Juridical Entity.

Pimentel recalled that after the MOA on Ancestral Domain was voided by the Supreme Court for being unconstitutional, Malacañang tried to rectify its mistake by pledging to regularly inform and consult with Congress on its peace talks with the MILF.

But in utter disregard of this commitment, Pimentel said the Palace refused to allow Cabinet members and other officials of the executive branch to appear at the Senate defense committee hearing on the Mindanao peace process last Monday by invoking the principle of executive privilege.