Aiming to encourage public debate on the contentious Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the
Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID), Mindanao Peace Weavers (MPW) and the University of the Philippines College of Law held a public forum yesterday at Malcolm Hall in UP Diliman.
Aiming to encourage public debate on the contentious Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the
Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID), Mindanao Peace Weavers (MPW) and the University of the Philippines College of Law held a public forum yesterday at Malcolm Hall in UP Diliman.
“The forum is for the public to understand the agreement. We, at the peace movement, including our allies in the academic community see the need to converge and provide a deeper analysis on and ways to address the issue, which has implications on the peace process in Mindanao,” Gus Miclat, IID executive director said.
With the theme “Right to Self-Determination: The Viability of a Peace Agreement between the GRP and MILF, the forum brought together representatives of both negotiating panels on the Mindanao peace talks: Atty. Musib Buat, Haji Abdula Camlian, Prof. Rudy Rodil and Sec. Rodolfo Garcia.
They sought to clarify issues on the MOA-AD, stressing that the controversial agreement only contains statements of principles that will guide the continuation of the peace negotiations between the GRP and the MILF and is not the Comprehensive Peace Compact itself. Atty. Musib expressed that without the MOA-AD, whose signing was aborted last August 5 through a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) issued by the Supreme Court, the peace talks will not prosper and many people will be disappointed.
Sec. Rodolfo Garcia, chairperson of the GRP negotiating panel, presented the government perspective and the legal and political impediments needed to overcome the challenges of arriving at a negotiated final peace agreement with the MILF. He said that one must clearly understand the root cause of the Mindanao conflict and the history of Bangsa-moro struggle to come up with a fair conclusion or analysis in the issue.
Responses to speakers’ inputs were solicited from a panel of reactors composed by Timuay Noval Lambo, a Subanen tribal leader; Atty. Adel Tamano, president of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila and spokesperson of the United Opposition; and Teresita Quintos Deles, former Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process.
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