The Mindanao lobby group that went to Malacanang today to appeal to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to “exhaust all means and exercise more political will” to bring back the government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace talks to its track have agreed to target in their campaign those who have misgivings on the ancestral domain issue that caused the impasse in the negotiation.
Government and civil society groups from Mindanao have agreed to jointly draft a campaign plan to rally more support for the peace process in Mindanao.
The Mindanao lobby group that went to Malacanang today to appeal to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to “exhaust all means and exercise more political will” to bring back the government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace talks to its track have agreed to target in their campaign those who have misgivings on the ancestral domain issue that caused the impasse in the negotiation.
The 17-man lobby mission from Mindanao, which was joined by four other Manila-based non-government organizations, was met at Malacanang by all the officials of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) led by Secretary Jesus Dureza.
Dureza, who was joined by Assistant Secretaries Nabil Tan, Ramon Santos and Dimas Pundato, told the delegation that he brought all the officials of OPAPP after the President gave him a “special order to listen to your proposals” on how to break the impasse.
The almost three-hour meeting at the Premiere Guest House of Malacanang ended up with an agreement that the OPAPP and MPC sit down to plan the campaign to rally support for the peace process by targeting “local government officials” who have passed resolutions opposing any peace agreement that the government may forge with the MILF.
“We can craft some kind of advocacy plan together,” was Dureza’s suggestion that was immediately accepted by the lobby mission.
Chairman Melanio Ulama of the Mindanao Peoples Caucus, the organizer of the lobby mission, said they were in Manila to meet the President, cabinet officials, senators, 16 foreign diplomats, church and business leaders, and non-government organization leaders to “rally them to pull all efforts in pushing for the resumption of the peace talks” between the government and the MILF.
Oblate priest Roberto Layson, co-chair of MPC, told the Malacanang officials that they were hoping they could bring “good news back to our people because on my way here I received many text messages from people on the ground asking what has happened with our mission.”
Babo Umbai Maliganan, an elderly woman who have evacuated already seven times already, told Dureza’s group that she readily volunteered to join the lobby mission because she was encouraged by the declaration of the President of a unilateral ceasefire after she personally appealed for her to do so during their audience with the Chief Executive on April 2, 2003. She was referring to a lobby mission she joined to ask the President to stop the war at the Buliok complex in 2003.
“Bumalik ako dito sa Malacanang, sir dahil noong nangako ang mahal na Pangulo sa akin ng ceasefire, tinupad nya ito. Gusto ko sanang ipaabot nyo sa kanya ang aking pasasalamat. Nadama ko na kung gaano gasarap mamuhay kung may peace dahil makapamuhay kami ng maayos at nakapag-aral na ang mga bata,” she said.
Maliganan could not forget the President telling her in 2003: “Babo, wag ka na matakot,” but added that she couldn’t help but be frightened at the prospects of a bigger war in the event the peace talks collapse. Hence, she told Dureza: “Anak, matanda na ako. Ayaw ko na ng gulo. Sana kapayapaan na lang lahat. Sana tulungan mo ako. Ipatuloy nyo ang kapayapaan, wag na ang gulo.”
Both the MPC delegation and the OPAPP officials agreed there really is a need to push the peace process forward.
Dureza relayed to the group that in the recent Command Conference that the President presided in Camiguin in Mindanao, Arroyo reportedly took a piece of paper while telling the Army and Police commanders “I will give you now the commander-in-chief’s guidance.” On the piece of paper, Dureza added that the President wrote: “The peace process is primary to me without sacrificing the process of law.”
Dureza said he suspected that the President called the command conference because of the impasse in the talks and the inclusion of MILF chair Mohammad Al Hajj Murad among those charged of the bombing in Makilala in North Cotabato that killed six and wounded over a dozen others.
He also announced that the government peace negotiators “will soon come up with a new proposal” which he implied will help break the impasse.
Aside from the meeting in Malacanang, the lobby group also met with Bishop Efraim Tendero, one of Arroyo’s spiritual advisers, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales, Atty. Aquilino Pimentel Jr., the chief of staff of the Senator Pimentel Sr.
Among the meetings that the lobby group has yet for tomorrow (October 26) is that with 16 foreign embassy officials involved in peace and development projects in Mindanao. Among them are the embassies of the US, Canada, Sweden, Japan, Australia, Malaysia and others.
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